Posted on 10/20/2010 12:23:08 PM PDT by reaganaut1
The British economist John Maynard Keynes may live on in popular legend as the world’s most influential economist. But in much of Europe, and most acutely here in the land of his birth, his view that deficit spending by governments is crucial to avoiding a long recession has lately been willfully ignored.
In Britain, George Osborne, chancellor of the Exchequer, delivered a speech on Wednesday that would have made Keynes — who himself worked in the British Treasury — blanch. He argued forcefully that Britons, despite stumbling growth and negligible bank lending, must accept a rise in the retirement age to 66 from 65 and $130 billion in spending cuts that would eliminate nearly 500,000 public sector jobs and hit pensioners, the poor, the military and the middle classes because of what he insisted was the overwhelming need to reduce the country’s huge budget deficit.
In Ireland, where the economy is suffering through its third consecutive year of economic slump, Keynes is doing no better. Devastated by a historic property crash and banking bust, the Irish government is preparing another round of spending cuts and tax increases.
Combined with what Dublin has already imposed, the cuts could add up to as much as 14 percent of Ireland’s gross domestic product, an extraordinary amount for a modern industrial country. Ireland’s budget deficit reached 32 percent of total economic output this year.
Indeed, across Europe, where the threat of a double-dip recession remains palpable, what is most surprising is not simply that governments from Germany to Greece are slashing public outlays but that the debate hinges more on how fast to do so rather than whether such substantial cuts are the right thing to do under the current circumstances.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
“Coming to America”.
I thought Keynes had gone out with Reagan, but Obama has brought him back with a vengeance, sadly.
Keynes was a nutjob who(happily for him, unhappily for the rest of us) was accidentally taken seriously, when what he needed was to be put in the corner and given the Cold Stare of Contempt.
Keynes was only taken seriously by those wishing to transform economies from capitalism to socialism.
Larry Kudlow at least gets it
And yet, we in America continue to grow the government and deficit spend. How utterly retarded of us.
Keynes was a skillful and persuasive writer, and what he wrote sounded very reasonable. He supported his theories with mathematical footnotes which nobody understood and nobody could test.
Even if his theories were sound, Keynesians themselves admit that they won’t work in a country that (1) is a heavy importer, and (2) is deep in debt = Britain and also the USA.
According to Wikipedia, Keynes served as Director of the British Eugenics Society and thought that eugenics was the most important branch of sociology.
Chrissy Matthews will have a heart attack reading this. He has been shouting about needing more spending by the government. Lamenting why Obama does not do like FDR and have CCC type programs. I have news for Chrissy. I do not think men would leave their homes and live in tents and work for food and a little money like they did in the Great Depression. Oh I know he means alot of money for those blue collar UNION guys. Heck just build a bridge or building or something????
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