[digitalengineer]

What we saw after the 2008 was not real Keynesian Economics. This was Keynes: During a recession/depression do: 1. A reduction in interest rates (monetary policy), and 2. Government investment in infrastructure (fiscal policy). By reducing the interest rate at which the central bank lends money to commercial banks, the government sends a signal to commercial banks that they should do the same for their customers.

He didn't say: Prop up the banks, to big-to-fail, save Wall Street and screw main street. Apart from that he advized paying off debt when the economy is doing well. We haven't seen that for the last 40 years or so.

[khuey]

In other words arguing Keynes vs. Marx and whatnot is a waste of time. The powerful always manage to skim off value for themselves and when the system collapses they laugh all the way to the bank while the rest of us argue about whether or not it was real communism or real Keynesian policy.

[digitalengineer]

True. But Keynes is tought at every high school in the Western World and parotted in the news each and every time as the best thing to do, so say clever minds. Propaganda, nothing more.

[eli_gottlieb]

Agreed, but I think Keynes "doesn't go too far enough". We ought to be simply erasing bad debts and bubble-driven debts to let various markets (particularly real-estate and stocks) revert to the natural price levels where real buying power can pay for the assets.