Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Keynes is more than that, my friends

Recently, I gather that critics of Keynes usually don’t understand Keynes very well. They believe, Keynes is all about Big Government, and that is bad; full stop. So, they find it strange that a person like me, who loves how the market works through price mechanism and hates big government still has belief in Keynes. Worse yet, when I argue for liberalizing the market, they think I am a convert. Strangely enough, they are the ones who come up with policy recommendation such as cash transfer as a compensation for oil subsidy removal, that economic downturn is caused by investment shortage, that herd instinct is more desirable than hoard instinct in stimulating growth, that monetary policy “might have its limits”, that deficit spending is sometimes -- many times -- needed. And they say Keynes should be despised? In fact, they even call for bastardized Keynesianism: that the government should create jobs; that the government should lead growth. These two, even me have reservation.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So, if the cash transfer program is such a screw up, the next question is, who came up with the proposal and who approved it? Could you please elaborate? Shouldn't the public have the right to know? Thanks.