Spent the morning doing some work, and I’m probably chillax’in the rest of the afternoon with my books. Hooray.

Read an article by Philip Greenspun that gave me this little insightful tidbit:

Cut government spending during a depression? What about classical Keynesian economics? Maybe it was a good idea in 1936, but the world is a lot more globalized today and there is much more competition among countries. In 1936 a multinational business did not enjoy free voice-over-IP telecommunications, cheap air freight, cheap container shipping, nor billions of workers in low-cost foreign countries who were speaking or learning English.

Japan is a good example of the failure of Keynesian economics in the globalized era. The country spent hugely on public works projects in the 1990s, digging an enormous debt hole for its future citizens (170 percent of GDP; compare to 60 percent of GDP for the U.S. (source)). What was the result? Its largest corporations invested substantially in growth and created a lot of new jobs… in China, Thailand, Vietnam, etc. The domestic economy stagnated.

I’m not sure what to make of it but it’s worth knowing.

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