ABSTRACT
Perhaps the only silver lining in the current global crisis is that economists and policy makers have rediscovered the benefits of Big Government. To be sure, the neocons who have been running government even as they railed about its evil nature never really intended to reduce its role. As I have argued, they simply changed its constituency: a government of the rich, for the rich, and by the rich (Wray, 2005; see also Galbraith, 2008). Still, they proclaimed that Big Government is bad, then set out to govern in such a manner that everyone would agree with them. But, as common wisdom teaches, there are no atheists in foxholes. We all became Keynesians again as we instinctively turned to Big Government for help. In truth – as Margaret Thatcher famously said in another context – there is no alternative.
