Jean-Paul Fitoussi's March 3 article, "Keynes and the end of economic history," does a nice hatchet job on John Maynard Keynes. "Arrogant and naive" indeed. Yet Keynes' theory solved the liquidity trap of the 1930s, and in the current economic troubles we have immediately reverted to Keynesian economics.
Economist Milton Friedman has nothing to offer in such a situation. In fact his flawed theories have brought us to the current financial disaster. The financial sector has been telling governments for years that their dealings are too complex for mere regulators to understand and therefore they should not be regulated. Well how much is it going to cost us taxpayers to bail out these arrogant neoliberal market fundamentalists? Hundreds of billions that's how much.
Give me a good dose of Keynes anytime, and please could we consign the fatally flawed theories of Friedman to the dust bin of history? Now that the last bubble has burst, can anyone explain how his market fundamentalism has benefited anyone but the very rich?
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