Class 8: “Macroeconomic Policy” by UC Berkeley Professor Reich

This week we look at one of most hidden of all domains affecting inequality — the role of macroeconomic policy. Don’t worry if you haven’t had a course in macro. We’ll be approaching the subject from an entirely different direction from standard courses, which rarely if ever explore distributional consequences. The questions I’ll focus on are: What’s the effect of macroeconomic policy on inequality? What’s the difference between fiscal and monetary policies? How fast can the economy grow without igniting inflation? How should inflation be remedied? How and under what conditions does faster growth reduce inequality? This is the eighth class in the 14-week series. I’ve shared some select readings from the syllabus for you. They’re available at: Class Outline ------------------------- 0:00 A note about learning 1:20 Recap of prior classes and UC Berkeley vs. Stanford 7:46 Introduction 12:00 Inflation and rec