The Unanimous Declaration of the Keynesian Coalition

By Tyler Healey

IN AMERICA, September, 2012

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one school of economic thought to dissolve the bands which have connected it with others, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and superior station to which the Laws of Science entitle it, a decent respect to the opinions of humankind requires that the members of their school should declare the causes which impel the separation.

We the Keynesian Coalition hold these truths to be empirically evident:

• Excessive fiscal austerity causes and prolongs economic downturns.
• Properly-sized and well-targeted deficit growth prevents and ends economic downturns.
•  Tax cuts for the rich is among the least effective ways to stimulate an economy.

In every stage of this recession, we have petitioned for these truths in the most humble terms: Our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated dismissal.

We, therefore, the scholarly descendants of John Maynard Keynes, in America, assembled, do, by authority of history, solemnly publish and declare, that the citizens of this nation ought to be free and independent of the failed economic dogma of the past and present, and that as free and independent people, they have full power to elect political leaders that will pursue Keynesian economic policies, which, since their inaugural implementation, have kept millions from the harsh cruelty of poverty. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the stubbornness of facts, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.