Hey Big Spender! – A Dead Economists Society Salon

The Dead Economists Society Salon series continues as Bronwyn Williams and Peter Isztin investigate big spending, big government economics and the rockstar economists who love them.

“In the long run, we’re all dead.” ~ Keynes

“Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” ~ Dave Matthews

In this Dead Economists Society Salon series, we jump right into one of the biggest economic ideological battlegrounds to look at big government, through the ideas of John Maynard Keynes and onwards (and upwards?) to the more contemporary takes on why (if?) big government is really better for the economy (or not?), as popularised by the current wave of rockstar economists who have evolved those ideas and are promising more cake and more eating thereof.

Specifically, we’ll investigate the (very tempting) ideas popularised by “post and neo keyenesians” including Stephanie Kelton, the Deficit Myth and the MMT movement; and Marianna Muzzucato and her ideas around the role and responsibility of the development state in finding and launching moonshots.

• Is big government better when it comes to the economy? 
• Is inflation a “moral panic” or a real risk when it comes to expansionary fiscal and monetary policy?
• Do we need moonshots? (And if, so, who should fund them?)
• What does (and what should) a “green new deal” look like?
• Will private borderless cryptocurrency rain on the big spending parade?

Join us as we discuss these and more questions around the role of government in the strange new post-covid economy where there are “no rules” (or at least, all the rules we have about economics and markets are being ignored), and where moonshots and Doge Coins “going to the moon” are the order of the day.

Recommended reading:

• Richard Posner on Keynes:  How Much Is Enough? and How I Became a Keynesian
• Bryan Caplan on “good Keynesians”
• A critique of Moonshots
• MMT and inflation
• “Post Keynesianism” (And why MMT fits the category)
• Every Deficit is “good for someone”
• Moonshots and “Earthshots”

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