I found
this editorial when searching for a picture of John Maynard Keynes for my slides on Monday. It connects a topic we've been discussing--Keynesian macroeconomics--to a modern day issue: will the president be re-elected? Mr. Wapshott offers:
No president since 1948 has been elected with a jobless figure higher than 7.2 per cent, so with unemployment currently running at 9.1 per cent, he looks headed for certain defeat... With the White House admitting there is little chance unemployment will fall before the election next year, the president needs some good advice on how to get people back to work, and fast.
Fan or not of President Obama, things aren't looking that good for his chances next November. Keynes would say that the stimulus was a good start, but...
...the trillion dollar injection into the economy was far too small to do much good and in many cases went to the wrong people and was spent on the wrong projects... Keynes’s famous “multiplier,” by which every dollar spent is worth far
more as it is passed from hand to hand, doesn’t work if the cash is
placed under a mattress.
The article is a good read, whether or not you agree with Keynes, Obama or government stimulus. It helps clarify the issues that we've been discussing in class, plus reveals that Keynesian economics isn't a partisan issue. For instance, Keynes favored
lowering taxes during recessions, a plan that Republicans have supported wholeheartedly.
