[Dean's World] Ron Coleman: We were all Keynesians then

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Posted by Ron Coleman:
We were all Keynesians then
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1146705806.shtml


                     [180px-John_kenneth_galbraith.jpg]

   The popularizer of Keynesian economics, John Kenneth Galbraith, died
   this weekend.

   Oh, [1]you hadn't noticed?

   It's not entirely fair. The Washington Post [2]tells us that "[H]e was
   said to have been one of the few economists, if not the only, invited
   to Truman Capote's 1966 [3]Black and White Ball in New York." What was
   his take on the modern-day U.S. economy and the economic policy of the
   present administration? [4]He said this in 2002:

     He has always been superb at attacking 'conventional wisdom', a
     phrase he coined, and his current target is worship of the US
     Federal Reserve. America is 'having a somewhat painful recession,
     with no remedial action in sight of any consequence. The
     administration, in summary, has two lines of action: one is tax
     relief for the rich. The other is reliance on the Federal Reserve.
     It is at least consistent. Both are without effect.'

   No, [5]no effect at all. No wonder the Post tells us, he was
   "[r]egarded by admirers such as Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) as a
   'true Renaissance man.'" Indeed, he was by all accounts far more a
   gentleman than the "gentleman from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,"
   but they both did share one trait: One was, and another remains, a
   living wax display of a time and an ideology that time has ruthlessly
   passed by.

References

   1. http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/2006/05/nobody_reads_hi.html
   2. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/30/AR2006043000422.html
   3. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11655564/
   4. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,805309,00.html
   5. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-econ29apr29,1,4688665.story?coll=la-headlines-business