THE EDITOR, Sir:
FOUR SCORE less seven years ago, Cambridge University's arch conservative money manager, John Maynard Keynes, brought forth a shocking new theory of economics and economic planning.
He claimed it could minimise the ill-effects of an unprecedented downward spiral in business activity now known as the Great Depression. Without bothering to read him, American conservatives derided him mercilessly when he became identified with Franklin D. Roosevelt's 'New Deal.'
Those Americans who are over 80 still have vivid memories of the summer of 1931, when 25 million Americans were unemployed and President Herbert Hoover launched his bid for re-election with the slogan, "Prosperity is just around the corner." By the time Roosevelt was elected in November, 1932, unemployment topped 30 million, more than one in three of the entire work force.
Roosevelt read Keynes and invited him to Washington D.C. to advise his administration. With the help of that great lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, and presidential aide, Harry Hopkins, millions of Americans were rescued from absolute starvation and given work with dignity, many of them in jobs for the very first time. (The wealthy were rescued as well though they never admitted it.)
Today's conservatives are busy echoing Hoover's let-it-fix-itself line; we wait with bated breath. If the economy does not fix itself, then it is time to revisit Keynesian economies and to search for new leadership that can do what the Roosevelts and Harry Hopkins did to rescue the bitterly poor and rescue the rich again in spite of themselves.
Time was when I would not have troubled Jamaican readers with so much about the USA; but globalisation has changed all that. We know now that what happens in Washington D.C. today will affect us here tomorrow or the day after.
I am, etc.,
JOHN SEARS
96 3/4 Old Hope Road
Kingston 6
