Monday, August 20, 2012
‘The high-water mark of Keynesian economics,’ Part II
Reader No. 1 sends in this excellent 2007 piece by Bruce Bartlett decrying the oversimplification of Supply-Side economics and the cut-taxes-at-any-costs mentality of some Republicans. As I wrote back to Reader No. 1, “I really liked Bartlett's column. It gets into my whole theory, if you will, of ‘abuses’ of economic philosophies, both Keynesian and Supply-Side.”
Reader No. 1 sends in this excellent 2007 piece by Bruce Bartlett decrying the oversimplification of Supply-Side economics and the cut-taxes-at-any-costs mentality of some Republicans. As I wrote back to Reader No. 1, “I really liked Bartlett's column. It gets into my whole theory, if you will, of ‘abuses’ of economic philosophies, both Keynesian and Supply-Side.”
P.S.
– Reader No. 1 also sent along another piece that I didn’t have time to read.
But it dealt with the issue of whether government spending can stimulate economic
growth. My own view is that such Keynesian priming of the pump acts more as an
economic stabilizer than as an economic stimulant. It’s necessary when the
economy has ground to a near halt, as it did in the early ‘30s and again after
the 2008 Wall Street debacle. Those were scary times. The economy in each
instance desperately needed to be stabilized – and from that standpoint the economic policies worked. But did the massive injections really stimulate medium- and long-term growth? Not really. Look around. Do you see a booming economy today?
