If you're a glutton for torment as I am, you watch cable-TV
news shows most nights. These days the shows are feeding viewers a steady diet
of 100-proof Keynesianism as the cure for our economic woes. Leading in this
department is Chris Matthews of MSNBC's “Hardball.” (I call it “Nerf Ball.”
Matthews's idea of a hardball question for a politician is, “Are you running for
president?”) Matthews declared last week, “We're all Keynesians now,” and each
night he pontificates on why the government must start to spend massive amounts
of money, even though it doesn't have massive amounts of money. We'll worry
about the consequences later. Why must it spend? Because
we aren't doing
it and that's putting the economy in recession. Someone has to spend, Matthews
says, and the government is spender of last resort.
More . . .
A NEW article by Sheldon Richman