"Does Keynesianism have the keys to unlock the economic lockdown?"
Crisis economies always have a way of resurrecting state interventionist policies inspired by British economist John Maynard Keynes, who advised governments during the Great Depression on how their nations could recover from economic ruin. Today's coronavirus worldwide economic lockdown might lead us to the same devastating fate in a matter of weeks. The temptation to call on the largesse of public coffers via stimulus packages, loans, welfare, and regulation is almost unavoidable with record unemployment and draconian restrictions on most businesses. Yet the costs do add up: trillions in public debt that private citizens must eventually pay back.
Will a short-term economic boost through state aid boomerang into long-term stagnation because of massive public debt that leads to suffocating taxation on private income, perhaps even for generations to come? Or is the solution found in taking the brunt now and allowing markets to naturally repair economic wounds on their own? Join us next week with Victor Claar, Distinguished BB&T Professor of Free Enterprise at Florida Gulf Coast University, who will combine a sobering analysis of economics with Christian principles of hope, providence, and human creativity.
