Keynesian Economics Grand Failure: median living standards of US households have been falling at a 0.5% annual rate since the turn of the century. There is no prior 15 year period that bad, including the 15 years after the 1929 crash.

David Stockman has one of the best articles ever written on recent American economic performance:

During the same 1953-1973 interval, real median family income grew at 3.0% annually, rising from $26k to $46k during the period.

By contrast, over the course of the next 27 years, and after Washington ended both the Bretton Woods gold standard anchor on money and the practice of balanced budgets, real median incomes grew by only 0.8% annually, rising to $57k by the year 2000.

Needless to say, its been all downhill since then. Real median income was $53k in 2014. That means median living standards of US households have been falling at a 0.5% annual rate since the turn of the century. There is no prior 15 year period that bad, including the 15 years after the 1929 crash.


The argument of the Keynesians is that capitalism is a chronic underperformer. Left to its own devices it is always leaving idle labor and capital resources on the table, and is even prone to bouts of depressionary collapse absent the counter-cyclical ministrations of the state and its central banking branch.

An article well worth your time!