Needful Correctives

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/be2dbf2c-d113-11dd-8cc3-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1 I think this piece is a good corrective to both sides of the political divide. The three lessons rescued from Keynes' huge output of ideas are, I think, thoroughly correct and, also, necessary to a successful escape from the mounting gravitational pull of this black hole we have created. Instead, being the faithful children of gerrymandered districts and conformist party organizations, the infantile, irresponsible mob that has the run of Congress learns nothing and perpetuates the same ideologies that failed to end the Great Depression. Republican free market rhetoric bears little relation to Republican policies which do not dare to touch entitlements, or to the reality that the free market's excess of freedom was a major cause (possibly the major cause) of the crisis, or to the fact that intensive government intervention in the markets (and not only in the markets) is the only way to limit the damage of the crisis. Democrats are wrong to use the crisis as an excuse for haphazard spending (including earmarks) and for claiming to believe in the importance of the free market while executing multiple strategies to undermine its long term viability (socialization, unionization, over-regulation). And, as to Obama, the perception that he has created among the people that he is not confident about our economic future calls to my mind the political developments in Europe during the Great Depression--it seems as though he wishes to manipulate people into a heightened state of fear so that they will the more readily support a radical socialist agenda. In 1930's Europe precisely this strategy was used by the radicals of the time (fascists and socialists) not only to achieve power, but to consolidate and secure it. On the other hand, I think an intelligent observer (as opposed to "the people") will not develop this impression of Presidential pessimism--but intelligent observers do not decide elections.