Jobs not coming back quickly enough? Housing market still in the dumps?
Maybe what the world needs now is a little more government-funded research.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said as much at a Conference on “New Building Blocks for Jobs and Economic Growth” in Washington, D.C. today. Kind of:
“Economists have identified some persuasive justifications for government policies to promote R&D activities,” Bernanke said. “In practice, we know less than we would like about which policies work best. A reasonable strategy for now may be to continue to use a mix of policies to support R&D while taking pains to encourage diverse and even competing approaches by the scientists and engineers receiving support.”
Or maybe we should research how to research.
“As someone who spends a lot of time monitoring the economy, let me put in a plug for more work on finding better ways to measure innovation, R&D activity, and intangible capital,” Bernanke said. “We will be more likely to promote innovative activity if we are able to measure it more effectively and document its role in economic growth.”
Click here to read Bernanke’s speech.
What would you like to see the government research?
How about researching what’s going to happen to the economy when the Fed ends its bond buying programs later this year, or is forced to raise interest rates?
