Marc Andreessen Dismisses Secular Stagnation Theories As 'Silly' In A Macroeconomic Tweetstorm
He believes US economy is not facing an era of secular stagnation.
Secular stagnation is the idea that the economy won't be able to create enough demand to sustain its growth trend unless interest rates are extraordinarily low. The idea has been much debated since Larry Summers addressed it in a speech at the IMF last year.
In November, we highlighted comments from Goldman Sachs economist Jari Stehn, who revisited Summers' hypothesis about a year after his speech. Stehn argued that so far, the US economy is showing signs it might not be fated to secular stagnation.
And in a long, pre-dawn (in California time) tweetstorm, noted venture capitalist Marc Andreessen also argued that the secular stagnation Summers and others are so worried about - namely that we are fated to a subpar economy for the foreseeable future - may be overblown.
Andreessen sees an economy that faces the core problem of too much capital facing too few investment opportunities, rather than an economy that is simply stuck in the mud and can't get back to a pre-financial crisis growth trend.
Here are Andreessen's full comments:
Disclosure: Marc Andreessen is an investor in Business Insider.