On Mon, Dec 1, 2008 at 6:32 PM, Patrick Bond <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > That's not how The Economist (1 Dec) reads it (see below). >> Even if the rescue of the financial system starts to bring credit markets >> back to life, we'll still face a global slump that's gathering momentum. >> What should be done about that? The answer, almost surely, is good old >> Keynesian fiscal stimulus...
Am I the only one who finds the recent certitude around "good old Keynesian fiscal stimulus" a little unsettling? For one thing, as Patrick points out, there is the selective reading of Keynes. It is a reading, moreover, that was long ago filtered and refracted through Hicks and Samuelson and bastardized by various bastards. Somehow, though, this selective, bowdlerized formula has become "infallible". Finally, there is the glib assumption that a twice restructured capitalism operates in 2008 more or less the same as the capitalism that Keynes had in mind. For one thing, "the moon" has long been replaced by green cheese. People don't want the damned moon any more. They want green cheese. They want it in perpetuity. And they want more and more and MORE of the stuff. Keynes's remedy was plausible as a remedy at least in part because it was novel. NOBODY expects the Fiscal Stimulation! Our chief weapon is surprise... surprise and fear... fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... -- Sandwichman _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
