Thom Hartmann was discussing possible choices for Obama's economic team. He hopes that Obama chooses people who follow Keynesian theories. "What does that mean?" you may ask.
This is an interesting read. Please follow the link to get the whole story.
A REVIEW OF KEYNESIAN THEORYKeynesian theory is central to understanding the Great Depression. We'll review just the theory here, and reserve for other sections the opportunity to see if the events of the 1930s bear out the theory.
Keynesianism is named after John Maynard Keynes, a British economist who lived from 1883 to 1946. He was a man of many contradictions: an elitist whose economic theories would be embraced by liberals the world over; a bisexual who enjoyed a happy and lifelong marriage to a Russian ballerina; a genius with an uncanny ability to predict the future, but whose works were often badly organized and sometimes very wrong. I mention this only because many of Keynes' critics try to refute his theories by pointing to the man himself. This is worse than irrelevant, of course; such criticisms are often prejudiced.
What is not in contention is that even Keynes' critics call him the greatest and most influential economist of the 20th century. For this reason, he is known as "the father of modern economics."
When the Great Depression hit worldwide, it fell on economists to explain it and devise a cure. Most economists were convinced that something as large and intractable as the Great Depression must have complicated causes. Keynes, however, came up with an explanation of economic slumps that was surprisingly simple. In fact, when he shared his theory and proposed solution with Franklin Roosevelt, the President is said to have dismissed them with the words: "Too easy."
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