Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Joseph Salerno on Barlett's Keynesianism

But in terms of fiscal policy, Roosevelt's error wasn't that he spent too much, but that he didn't spend nearly enough...

The critics were also totally opposed to deficit spending.... they said that federal borrowing would simply draw funds out of productive uses in the private sector to be squandered on make-work government jobs, pork barrel projects of dubious value and welfare programs that would sap the dynamism of the American economy.

read the essay


Joe Salerno responds:

This is pure old-style deficit-spending cum multiplier-Keynesianism through and through, without even the thinnest veneer of supply-side tax-cutting babble. He refers to Friedman and Schwartz, but they did not support massive deficit-spending; they rejected the Keynesian notion that the country was in a liquidity trap and therefore monetary policy was ineffective and like "pushing on a string." Bartlett is really a Krugmaniac.


My thoughts: Barlett has gone from being a fairly reliable supporter and defender of lower taxes to another Keynesian hack trying to make socialism and central planning work this time.

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