Duncan Black:
Eschaton: The Trouble With Sachs: I read the Sachs article in question as basically:
Keynesians are stupid children who are not Very Serious At All
[…]
Word salad with vague suggestions about how one might go about building a pony.
More generally, all this anti-Keynesian stuff is really so weird. Keynes got associated with "activist government," conservatives hate government, so conservatives decided Keynes was all wrong about everything and also, too, a communist. Or something. But Keynesian demand management really just says there are times when things won't right themselves automatically in a timely fashion, that government should step in to boost demand. It isn't about stealing from the rich to buy Cadillacs for strapping young bucks, or just how many SUPERTRAINS should be built, it just says there are times when the government, using fiscal and/or monetary policy, can actually improve the economy by boosting demand. That this is even controversial is mindboggling.
