A better way to cure recessions

Checks for everyone — no debt needed

Welcome to the first week of our new paywalled life together. Please feel free to share the joy with others if you like what you see.

Friday’s post on “The Real History of Race and the New Deal” led several readers to recommend some related scholarship that I wanted to pass on to you:

• Race and Social Welfare Policy: The Social Security Act of 1935 [Gareth Davies and Martha Derthick] is about, well, exactly what the title says.

• On Race and Policy History: A Dialogue about the G.I. Bill [Suzanne Mettler and Ira Katznelson] considers the racial equity impact of the G.I. Bill’s education provisions, and I think Mettler by far gets the better of the debate.

But on to today’s real topic — macroeconomic stabilization.

Specifically, I want to talk about why, despite the new consensus among economists in favor of fiscal stimulus, it’s still hard to do in practice. And ultimately I want to talk about why there’s a much better way that could make recessions a thing of the past: direct money creation…