Observances...Debt and antidepressants

It is said that history is a great teacher who has few pupils. When I was in college the great economist that we all studied was John Maynard Keynes of Great Britain who devoted his life to the study of why capitalist economies sometimes have a business cycle that sinks into a depression. He published his seminal literature “The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money.” This book, published in the 1930’s suggested that in the depths of economic collapse, governments needed to step in, borrow money and purchase labor and goods that would be long term assets, such as roads, dams, schools and hospitals.

However, once the economy righted itself, the government was supposed to run a surplus and reduce its debt. Probably this theory had its ultimate test with the WWII spending putting plants all over America back to work again and then President Eisenhower spent eight years in the 50’s whittling that debt back down.

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