Keynesian Economist Who Wanted to Sidestep the Constitution

Richard Ebeling emails:

I have a new article on a "Keynesian Economist Who Wanted to Sidestep the Constitution," about Nobel-Prize economist, Lawrence Klein, who died on October 20th at the age of 93.

It focuses on Klein's 1947 book, "The Keynesian Revolution," which was a widely read and influential "popularization" of the ideas in John Maynard Keynes' 1936 book, "The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money."

Klein advocated transferring the authority to tax and spend away from Congress to a "planning agency" assigned the task of changing "aggregate demand" to maintain full employment, and he wished to use government programs such as Social Security to undermine people's sense of self-responsibility to plan for their own futures because it resulted in too much savings.

He assured that people should not be afraid of this increased governmental power and planning as "regimentation" because the "regimentation" of unemployment  and being poor was far worse.

It was writings such as his that helped to undermine the older conception of constitutionally limited government, free markets, and individual liberty and responsibility.

We are still under the influence of ideas like Keynes and Klein, and from which we must find a way to escape.


http://epictimes.com/article/175397/keynesian-economist-who-wanted-to-sidestep-the-constitution