They’re All Keynesians!

Really.

Yes, it has been a long day waiting for this interminable storm to pass through. So I have been wandering about the internet catching up. I came across this piece by Suzy Khimm in Ezra Klein’s ‘Wonkblog’.

Let’s make it quick:

Both parties in Washington are twittering on about how the drastic cuts imposed under the rules of the so-called ‘fiscal cliff’ would damage the economy next year. We may, they all seem to agree, be plunged into recession.

Hmmm. Think about that for a second. That’s all the time it takes.

If a cut in spending hurts the economy, and even the Republicans are saying that, then surely, and by the self same logic, an increase in spending helps it. So it appears as if the Republicans, possibly unaware of the fact though they may be, are embracing a Keynesian approach to economic policy.

Were they not, they wouldn’t care a jot about slamming on the spending breaks. Slashing away at spending wouldn’t scare them in the least. I think that’s what they’ve said before. Slash spending, let market magic soar, and it will lift us all to the sky. Or at least that’s what I thought they said.

Perhaps not in view of their utterances over this fiscal cliff thing.

Maybe. Just maybe – gasp – there’s no such thing as market magic.

No! That can’t be. can it?