Quandary

Does Keynesian Spending Force Savers to Spend As Well?

The question that John Maynard Keynes posed is whether should we aggressively push to rectify economic problems - within our lifetimes - or just let everything work itself out. I studied economic theory in business school back in the '80s and have been dutifully following conservative investment principals ever since. That didn't stop our investments from going down the toilet. Our son, who will be inheriting this mess, now has roughly half the money to spend on college than one year ago. While large institutions are rescued, it seems that individual equity holders in this market must take their lumps: Socialism American style. So we are way beyond B-school economics now and I am probably the least qualified to answer Keynes' question. I do agree that the current group of law makers and clueless administration have a lot of guilt on their hands and shouldn't be in office. They definitely shouldn't be allowed to manage any bailout. As to whether or not we should borrow or spend ourselves out of this mess, there is the famous Keynes quote: The idea is that rather than "in the long run, everything will even out", that "in the long run, we're all dead."