If you’re a normal human being considering reading this post, fair warning: although it’s not super-technical, it’s aimed at a very wonky audience, and parts of it won’t exactly be in English. Also, it’s of limited policy relevance: the Trump administration would never consider the policy I suggest, and even a Biden administration would probably balk at going where I suggest. The only reason I’m writing about it is to get the idea out there. Oh, and I don’t think it’s very different from what Larry Summers has been saying, but I thought it might be helpful to put some stylized numbers to what I believe, and believe he believes.

OK, if you’re still with me: I hereby propose that the next U.S. president and Congress move to permanently spend an additional 2 percent of GDP on public investment, broadly defined (infrastructure, for sure, but also things like R&D and child development) — and not pay for it.

The starting point for my argument is the astonishing drop in interest rates over the past few weeks. They were historically very low even a year ago, but at the time of writing the 10-year rate was only 0.76 percent. That’s below the rates on Japanese debt during the Lost Decade: