All Keynesians Now?

In the Great Depression and beyond, Keynesian economics had government rolling out massive spending to stimulate slumping economies. Then Keynes fell out of fashion, and the free market gurus ruled.

Now, in the rubble of the go-go market years, Keynes is back — big-time. Obama’s team is talking about maybe a trillion-dollar stimulus package. That’s Keynesian on a grand scale.

Economist Robert Skidelsky is the great biographer and master of Keynes. This hour, On Point: Skidelsky on Keynes.

You can join the conversation. Are we all Keynesian now — ready, with Barack Obama, to pour on the economic stimulus? The government spending? Do we have a choice? Share your thoughts.Guest:

Joining us from London is Lord Robert Skidelsky, emeritus professor of political economy at the University of Warwick, director of the Moscow School of Political Studies, and a trustee of the Manhattan Institute. He is the preeminent biographer of John Maynard Keynes, having published a three-volume work, now condensed into a single volume: "John Maynard Keynes, 1883 to 1946: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman." Director and adviser to mutual and hedge funds and enterprises from New York to Europe to Moscow: Janus Capital, the Greater Europe Fund, and Russian telecom giant Sistema. His columns and essays appear in print around the world, and he is active in the British House of Lords.

Read an excerpt from Skidelsky's biography of Keynes at Amazon.com.

More links:

Skidelsky's latest pieces in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Prospect magazine all look at Keynesian thinking in the context of the current economic crisis.