These days everything must be smart. There are smart cities, smart grids, smart policies, smart TVs, smart cars, smartphones, smart watches, smart shoes, and smart glasses. There’s even something called smart underwear.
Before long everything around us will be so smart we’ll no longer have to do one critically important thing. We’ll no longer have to think; smart algorithms will think for us. What’s more, the possibilities for not thinking are seemingly limitless.
Just this week, for instance, in an effort to sound smart, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans indirectly advised President elect Donald Trump that fiscal policy must be “smart.” Presumably, what Evans means by this is that fiscal policy must not be “stoopid.”
Fortunately, New York Fed President William Dudley clarified how smart fiscal policy would work. According to Dudley, smart fiscal policy would include spending programs that are automatically triggered by a recession. Specifically, Dudley said “extensions of unemployment compensation and cuts in payroll taxes could be triggered by a downturn.” Continue reading







