Keynesian Spending Won't Work To Get Us Out of Depression, Says CMC Prof. and Others

Behold, the economists who disagree with the new, supposed Keynesian consensus! The paid advertisement was sponsored by the Cato Institute, ran in the New York Times, and was signed by CMC professor, Richard Burdekin. Aditya, Sam, and I are all in Richard Burdekin's Macroeconomics class right now. Without a doubt, it is one of my favorite classes that I have taken at Claremont.

Here it is below. I have truncated the names so that you might see only the one that is most relevant to us.

Jan 27, 2009

"There is no disagreement that we need action by our government, a recovery plan that will help to jumpstart the economy." — Presiden-elect Barack Obama, January 9, 2009

Notwithstanding reports that all economists are now Keynesians and that we all support a big increase in the burden of government, we the undersigned do not believe that more government spending is a way to improve economic performance.

More government spending by Hoover and Roosevelt did not pull the United States economy out of the Great Depression in the 1930s. More government spending did not solve Japan’s “lost decade” in the 1990s. As such, it is a triumph of hope over experience to believe that more government spending will help the U.S. today. To improve the economy, policymakers should focus on reforms that remove impediments to work, saving, investment and production. Lower tax rates and a reduction in the burden of government are the best ways of using fiscal policy to boost growth.

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MICHAEL BORDO, Rutgers University
SAMUEL BOSTAPH, Univ. of Dallas
SCOTT BRADFORD, Brigham Young University
GENEVIEVE BRIAND, Eastern Washington University
GEORGE BROWER, Moravian College
JAMES BUCHANAN, Nobel laureate
RICHARD BURDEKIN, Claremont McKenna College
HENRY BUTLER, Northwestern University
WILLIAM BUTOS, Trinity College
PETER CALCAGNO, College of Charleston
BRYAN CAPLAN, George Mason University

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