Alexander Douglas — Krugman discovers the obvious

A philosophical truth, as I see it, is a truth that is obvious once you think about it but has been obscured by overwrought theory.

Paul Krugman has discovered a philosophical truth.

Here it is. There is no operational difference between:

(a) the state spending, selling bonds to ‘fund’ its spending, and then buying back the bonds, and

(b) the state spending and not issuing the bonds in the first place.

This is a point economists outside the mainstream have been making for years (see this post).

Origin of Specious
Krugman discovers the obvious
Alexander Douglas | Lecturer in Philosophy at Heythrop College, London