Is Forbes reliable?
Here's an interesting article.
Highlights:
A similar debate is occurring in Europe, with the contest presented as “austerity” versus “growth.” Yet many of the nations which practiced austerity have grown the fastest. Germany remains the continent’s powerhouse even though its post-2008 stimulus was far less relative to its GDP than in the U.S. and other European states. B
oth Germany and Sweden enjoyed strong growth as they brought their budgets into closer balance.
The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
All cut government outlays; all are growing.
Canada and Switzerland similarly rejected profligacy as policy. All these countries are following the successful examples set by other nations such as Chile, Ireland, and New Zealand in the 1980s and ‘90s, and Slovakia from 2000 to 2003.
Historical experience argues against government’s ability to “stimulate” the economy. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president during the Great Depression. He spent wildly and the economy recovered a bit, only to sink again. In 1939 Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau complained that “After eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started … and an enormous debt to boot!”
9/25/2012 4:45 PM (edited)