18 Replies to “The Debt Decade”

  3. If you’re going to fail, fail quickly so you can get on with the solutions. In the context of national fiscal/monetary policies the world over, 20 years of failure might actually BE considered quick. Therefore I have no doubt that they’ll find a way out of this crisis and invent more money to spend one way or another.

  5. I was just talking with a friend today about the complete disaster that is Keynesian Economics. I fully understand why, in theory, it should work but there are a whole host of practical reasons why it always fails when tried.
    Quite frankly, I believe that most intelligent Leftist politicians KNOW that Keynesian Economics never works but they just like to use it as an excuse to spend, spend, spend … helping themselves getting elected next time. Period.

  6. Robert. In theory,time travel is possible too.Fully agree that politicos use it to get re-elected,using our money.

  7. So which country has applied Keynesian economics on a consistent long-term basis? I haven’t noticed any.

  8. The main problem with the implementation of Keynesean economics is that when the economy turns around, the bureaucracy hired during the tough times is never trimmed.
    For prime example, read up on Canada’s history under Brian Mulroney.

  9. Keynesianism is soft socialism – govt attempting to control the economy on a macro basis. The idea that govt can act in an ad hof basis like a governor on a carburetor to keep the economy and people’s lives on an even keel is flawed – politics and human nature gets in the way.
    That is not to say that certain financial levers can be used to smooth out economic peaks and troughs – using a computer program to adjust interest rates as Friedman suggested and to take it a step further adjust cap gains tax rates using a similar mechanism would work – as long as the human element is removed from the day to day process.
    Monarchism is dead; communism is dead; colonialism is dead; socialism is dying; Keynesianism is dying. Top down governance and market activity does not work. Its just taking a while to get to the only workable option long-term: grassroots politics based on market economics.

  11. With the magna carta, The Lords put limits on the power of the kings . Its high time that the people develope a strategy to put limits on powers of the lords.
    I suggest torches and pitchforks.

  12. Everything in the article was fine except this bit:
    “The long-term impact of the Fukushima explosion, in terms of public health, is anyone’s guess.”
    No, it’s not a guess. Given the source term from Fukushima, the health effects if any will be indetectable. You’re an economist, buckwheat; stay out of speculating in the hard sciences.

  14. Cgh is right about the radiation but I’m still hoping for giant mutated lizards.
    Japan MIGHT be abandoning Keynes. It would be nice if they did it before their weird economic limbo falls apart. Then things get bad. What Japan really needs is mass immigration.

  15. Keynesian is a complete failure yet is guaranteed to get politicians elected, which is why it’s so popular. Every election is the same. Promise the public anything and then screw them when you’re elected. Works every time. Who cares what you spend when it’s not your money. Market economics is only important when it’s your own money.

  16. In a very real sense, Keynesian economics has never been run by any government. Maynard Keynes was very specific about this point, and repeated it many, many times: governments must run a balanced budget over a complete business cycle.
    No government that ever applied his theory ever adhered to this central principle. What Keynes would have insisted was that governments run large surpluses during the past 15 years to pay down all the debt incurred from the 1980s and 1990s, but none of that happened. Rather the reverse.
    Now it cannot be applied even if it could be successful. By and large, governments are tapped out financially.
    LAS, immigration into Japan will never happen. The country and its culture is vigorously opposed to any form of immigration despite their demographic nightmare. Indeed many of Japan’s economic woes come precisely from the shrinking of Japan’s population growth rate into deep negative figures. A birth rate of less than one means that Japan’s population essentially halves with ever generation.

  17. It is to late for Japan. They are done like toast. Perhaps Romney should get a group of Japanese car executives who operate in America to explain to Americans what debt is doing to their country.
    A good laugh last night was having some Demo flunky tell Demos that their car gas bill would be halved if the Demos were re-elected. The EPA is increasing mandatory fuel economy targets by 100% by 2030. They may as well take credit now rather than later. Wait a minute that is how they spend money, right?

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