[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

"France has unveiled the toughest austerity measures since World War Two despite the looming danger of a double-dip recession, vowing to slash borrowing by €65bn over the next five years in a last-ditch effort to save the country's AAA rating."

See the logical fallacy? Saying "despite ..." is begging the question. It assumes that the proposition (that "stimulus", not "austerity" is the right policy) has already been proven -- when it most certainly has not been proven. Quite the opposite.

This is nothing more than mindless parroting* of ersatz Keynesism. (I say "ersatz", because even Keynes would not be calling for more deficit spending, to "cure" the problem caused by large deficits. The threat of a double-dip recession comes from uncertainty created by the overhanging debt load, which is about to crash down upon us. (* "parroting" was not intended as a slur on you bruinbirdman)

[bruinbirdman]

Perhaps one problem is including government spending in GDP.

One of the ways The Obammunist can claim there is no recession (two quarters of falling GDP) is by increasing government spending more than other factors of GDP decrease.

Right now, Hussein has increased spending 13% more of GDP than the 2008 budget. Take that away and what does the 2.5% growth look like?

yitbos

[garbanzo]

One of the things people forget about Keyes is that he wrote when most major economies were on a gold standard and not in the fiat, central bank managed currencies.