What Kind of Recovery?; The Editors Reply

Abstract

In discussing the U.S. recovery, the Review of the Month in the January 1985 MR states: "Finally, the supply-siders' claim that the recovery that began in 1983 has been powered by investment is simply not true." This statement is supported by "the testimony of a rock-ribbed conservative," Martin Feldstein, who was until recently head of Reagan's Council of Economic Advisors. It would be rash to assume that Mr. Feldstein did not consult the figures of national income published regularly in the Survey of Current Business, but if he did, he gives a misleading impression of the relative contribution to the recovery of consumer spending on the one hand and investment in business plant and equipment on the other.

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