South By North Strategies, Ltd.

Writing for Project Syndicate, Robert Skidelsky  asks what advocates of fiscal austerity must believe in order to make their policy proposals coherent. Concludes Skidelsky’ commentary:

The classical view of the economy, which [John Maynard] Keynes set out to demolish, is not only alive, but in recent years has been dominant, feeding the belief that competitive markets can be left to regulate themselves, will always provide as much employment as is wanted, and are immune to large-scale collapse. This also fuels opposition to government intervention, and to “stimulus” policies, which are supposedly redundant, if not harmful, since the events that require them cannot happen (but do).
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Unless we start discussing economics in a Keynesian framework, we are doomed to a succession of crises and recessions. If we don’t, the next one will come sooner than we think.