Of course, he is!
Gary North writes:
“Just signed Bill,” he wrote. “Our Military will now be stronger than ever before. We love and need our Military and gave them everything — and more. First time this has happened in a long time. Also means JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!”A military Keynesian is the worst kind of Keynesian.
-RW
In Keynes defense (maybe play on Orwellian Dept of Defense), didn’t he advocate budget surpluses (less spending) during “good” times so there were government “resources” to deploy initially without having to change tax rates or spending to avoid further downturn?
ReplyDeleteI reckon the whole GOP have been military keynesians for some time.
ReplyDeleteOf course modern real world keynesianism whether left keynesianism or right keynesianism is frankly a degenerated form of keynes.
Henry Hazlitt and the older Austrian and "para-Austrian" critics say Keynesianism's popularity as basically a pseudo-intellectual cover for what politicians wanted to do anyway. They don't need deep theory to persuade them to spend.
Modern keynesianism is plainly degenerated and corrupt. Deficit spending etc was originally seen as a counter-cyclical intervention. Now its permanent and applied in boom times as well as bust times. Where are the "true keynesians" when you want them? Why aren't "neo-keynesians" advocating budget surplus and debt retrenchment during boom times? Why is the governing foot permanently stuck to the accelerator? Is it even possible to run a counter-cyclical fiscal and monetary policy in a democracy?