The Economist illustrates what countercyclical macroeconomic policy looks like in China, where they really believe in getting the job done:
China should probably be doing even more to curb inflation right now, including allowing for a more rapid nominal appreciation of the Yuan. And it’s also probably true that a lot of that lending will have gone to boondoggles of various kinds and that there’ll be a slowdown soon that makes various large pieces of this countercyclical drive look mistaken. But for all that, at the end of the day having people doing jobs and building things — even wasteful things — is profoundly less wasteful than having them sit around demoralized, humiliated, and unemployed.
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