Spiked Online: We’re all Keynesians now? I’m not

Recent government actions in response to the financial crisis – in particular the Bush and Obama stimulus packages in the US – have been widely viewed as a sign that Keynes’ brand of economics is back in fashion. Whatever their theoretical inclinations prior to the crash, a majority of economists – and especially those in the Obama administration – dropped any inhibitions they may have had about increasing state spending and debt substantially when confronted with what they thought was the prospect of another Great Depression. As Robert Lucas, a leading economist and critic of Keynes, puts it, ‘I guess everyone is a Keynesian in a foxhole’