Is the recession’s great irony that government spending killed Keynesianism? With economists, bankers and investors perplexed over the economy’s continued funk, we cannot be blamed for looking in odd places for answers. Could it possibly be that continuously increasing spending over eight decades has left little ability for government spending to affect the economy?
How could increased overall government spending have priced stimulative spending out of the market? To understand what has happened, we must look back to the 1930s. The New Deal was a concerted effort for government to take up the economy's slack.
In 1930, federal government spending (a 6 percent nominal increase from 1929) amounted to 3.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, federal spending would top out at 10.7 percent of GDP in 1934 – only breaking the 10 percent threshold twice more in the 1930s. The increase of government relative to the economy was roughly threefold.
Full story: YOUNG: Killing Keynesianism? – Washington Times