The austerity tortoise and the Keynesian hare

Nobel-Laureate-Paul-Krugman recently used his New York Times column to instruct Grandmothers on the best method for removing the contents of intact eggs (hint: with a straw). But his reductive account of Keynesian economics merely obliges a response on behalf of those he targets, despite his salvo falling both short, and wide. Unfortunately, the only serious response one can make is that, although the larger debate between Keynesians and ‘austerians’ will rumble on, probably forever, it is a long time – about 2 years – since this exercise in academic reputation management had any serious impact on policy debates.