{"id":18848,"date":"2011-01-31T05:40:29","date_gmt":"2011-01-31T10:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/fx\/?p=18848"},"modified":"2011-01-31T05:40:29","modified_gmt":"2011-01-31T10:40:29","slug":"fiscal-policy-versus-monetary-policy-a-brief-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/2011\/01\/31\/fiscal-policy-versus-monetary-policy-a-brief-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Fiscal Policy Versus Monetary Policy &#8211; A Brief Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Cedric Welsch<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This has always been the classic tradeoff that economists and  governments need to decide on, in their attempts to stimulate economic  growth. While, fiscal policy is mainly related to taxation and deficits,  monetary policy is concerned with management of money supply and  setting interest rate levels. The issue of inflation needs to be kept in  mind, while developing the monetary policy.<\/p>\n<p>Fiscal policy can be  effectively used to influence economic growth by appropriately changing  tax levels in the economy. Tax rate changes can also be done in a way  such as to target certain sections of the economy or sectors by making  specific changes in taxes. Thus reducing taxes on incomes of individuals  can automatically increase the disposable income at the hands of  consumers and encourage them to spend. Tax benefits for buying houses  can help boost the housing sector. Similarly, fiscal policy can be used  to stimulate various sectors of the economy. Monetary policy on the  other hand has an overall impact, and by changing conditions that impact  money supply, aggregate demand in the economy can be influenced.<\/p>\n<p>The  US President seems to now be engaging the fiscal policy lever to  provide further stimulus to the US economy. Obama&#8217;s new agreement to  extend the Bush era income tax cuts is likely to increase disposable  income at the hand of consumer and could help provide a stimulus to  consumer spending and the US economy. This move could also reduce the  pressure on the US Fed with regard to its $600 billion bond purchase  program to keep interest rates low. Effectively, fiscal policy is being  used to stimulate the economy over monetary policy tools. Obama&#8217;s  proposal sets the estate tax at the top rate of 35 percent, while  extending aid for the long-term unemployed by thirteen months. The  proposal would also allow companies to deduct the full cost of  investments in equipment next year. Economists are of the view that this  fiscal policy maneuver could raise US GDP next year by as much as 0.5%  to 3.1%.<\/p>\n<p>The income tax cuts is applicable to all wage earners  and would result in savings of $800 for those with incomes of $40,000  and up to $2136 for those with incomes over $106,800. The Obama proposal  is likely to cost the US government nearly $120 billion in what would  have otherwise been collected as taxes. Effectively, US consumers would  have an additional $120 billion to spend.<\/p>\n<p>Assuming that the  program gets a green signal and does not get caught in political  crossfire, it is likely to boost demand in the US economy and should  result in a reduction in unemployment gradually, setting in a positive  and hopefully a self sustaining growth cycle. Economists are of the view  that the program could lead to an increase in employment by as much as  2.7 million and bring down the unemployment rate to 8.7% from the  present high of 9.8%.<\/p>\n<p>An increase in demand in the US is likely  to have ripple effects for economies around the world and with the US  being the largest importer, Obama&#8217;s plan is likely to touch the lives of  people around the world.<\/p>\n<h3>About the Author<\/h3>\n<p>Consistent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freshpips.com\/\" target=\"_new\">forex news trading<\/a> releases keep trading professionals on their toes. But that&#8217;s never enough if you don&#8217;t read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reviewpips.com\/\" target=\"_new\">forex scam<\/a> info.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This has always been the classic tradeoff that economists and governments need to decide on, in their attempts to stimulate economic growth. While, fiscal policy is mainly related to taxation and deficits, monetary policy is concerned with management of money supply and setting interest rate levels&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18848\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}