Dear Editor: I am writing to ask you and your readers to take a serious look into the modern "Keynesian" economists. Despite the political right's claim that the current economic situation disproves the Keynesians, the facts are quite the opposite. They have succeeded and are still succeeding in predicting the state of the economy; their assertions hold up against attempts to discredit them; and they know that our current economic policies will do nothing but cement our economic doldrums for years to come.
Among the predictions they have made, some are quite telling. They knew of the housing bubble before it happened; the purchase value of property was too far outstripping the rental value. They knew that the stimulus was too small to work; the contraction of state spending negated any stimulus effect hoped for. Finally, they have been constantly and rightly predicting that, despite the huge amount of money we are borrowing, we are not seeing a rise in core inflation, let alone the hyperinflation predicted by others. One needs to keep in mind that these predictions are "ink on paper" predictions made before the fact, not explanations contrived after the headlines come out.
The Keynesians' observations hold up to criticism. Time and again, they pull out the hard data and historical facts to show they are right. When one goes to the Internet and finds an article proving them wrong, one should look up the Keynesians' rebuttal. It is out there and overwhelmingly persuasive for any important criticism.
Right now, our country is following the footsteps of the dinosaurs that extended the economic malaise of the Great Depression for years. The people who follow those footsteps "know" that we must cut government spending and balance the budget.
On the other hand, academic economists, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke among them, have spent decades studying what happened to try and prevent a recurrence. The Keynesians agree that the deficit must be cut. However, that cut must wait until we have restored full employment.
With full employment comes a healthy, strong-growing economy. A strong economy generates more revenues. More revenues make paying off the deficit easier and faster.
Space does not permit me to go into why a real stimulus is affordable in detail. It lies in the fact that our debt is so attractive to the market (for those who believe in the free market) that the interest rates on short term debt are lower than inflation.
Right now the same "common sense" ideas that drove the Great Depression on for years are the exact same ideas driving our current economy into the ground. Sadly, no one is judging the economists by their record of prediction, the criteria used for all the sciences. Instead, the Keynesians are suffering from straw man attacks and talking points memos. Perhaps the question to ask is how many years of a faltering economy we must suffer before we will admit that our current track is wrong.
