Thursday, February 05, 2009

The Wrath of Keynes

When discussing the "Stimulus package",  there's been a lot of talk about economist John Maynard Keynes.

Now, I'm not an Economist, not even an amateur one.  I had one class in macro-ec in High School, one in college, and since then, I probably read one book on economics every couple of years.    But I was under the impression that noone in Economics took Keynes seriously anymore.  His theories were thought of as quaint, ancient, and discarded.  It was the Ptolemaic system of economics, where the government was the center of the economic universe.    

And it was an uncontroversial view that his policies actually made the Great Depression worse.

All of a sudden politicians and the media are pitching these policies as if this was a cutting-edge theory, with no mention of the issue that nobody has taken him seriously for 50 years.  WTF?

It just makes me want to scream "Keeeeeeyyyyyyynnnes!"

2 comments:

  1. I so agree...

    One thing to consider.. the politicians are acting in ways consistent with the knowledge level of the majority of their constituents, not with the majority of economists.

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  2. Is Obama a Keynesian? Or is he a Kenyan?

    Oh wait... its both.

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