Samuelson has discovered the cause of our economic problems. The original sin that he uncovered is entirely unrelated to the financial crisis, or to any other factors that have contributed to our problems. The devil made JFK run budget deficits to stimulate the economy. The devil of course was Keynes who argued that governments had a role to play in the free market economy. The devil told JFK that he should increase spending when cuts in business investment led to high unemployment. (The devil also said that we should run budget surpluses when the economy was at its peak, but that is usually ignored because that would make him less of a devil.) JFK's original sin led to the sins of inflation, and elevated national debt, which always leads to an economic contraction. Everything would be fine in the global economy if JFK had not been tempted by the devil. We are all going to hell as result of JFK's original sin.
Frankly, I wish that we did not have to pay any attention to serious people like Samuelson whose ignorance of economic history and the relationship between economic variables is proudly put on display in his op-eds. Along with George Will and David Brooks it is a full time job to sterilize conservative propaganda. The good news is that some people might learn more about propaganda techniques, and lots of economists respond by providing corrective lessons. These guys do make good foils.
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