12/21/20
I sent the below letter to the Wall Street Journal
two weeks ago. It’s safe to say by now
that it won’t be published, but I thought my readers would enjoy this quandary that
seems to baffle even the most stentorian proponents of the Keynesian multiplier. As I tell my students, Keynes was a
brilliant man who did a lot of good in his lifetime and his theories, contrary
to much conservative opinion, are essentially sound and his prescriptions
salubrious. However, the man’s ideas
have been used as rationalizations for all kinds of mischief emanating from those
in Washington suffering from the “little bit of knowledge” syndrome:
Andy Kessler (“A Stimulus Dollar Is Only a Dollar,” Inside
View, 12/7/20), as is his custom, brings up some great points about the
multiplier gibberish we were all taught in Econ 101 as impressionable and
mush-minded 18-year-olds but that those of us outside the public sector have
managed to outgrow. However, Mr.
Kessler failed to ask the one (rhetorical) question that ardent proponents of
this rationalization for enormous spending are completely incapable of
answering: Why is it that a dollar
spent by the government multiplies while a dollar invested or spent by the
private sector doesn’t? Ask the
question and prepare for looks of utter bewilderment from politicians and
bureaucrats who suffer from the “little bit of knowledge” syndrome that
afflicts official Washington.
Mark Quinn
Naperville, IL
