Chapter 2

Politics and Fiscal Policy

Keynes is the founder of the notion of fiscal policy; his work in the wake of the Great Depression established fiscal policy as a viable tool for macroeconomic policy.1 Previously, the only way the government deliberately influenced the economy was through monetary policy. Government involvement in money affairs began the first time a government minted a coin. However, government involvement in the economy at the time of the Great Depression was limited to coinage on the monetary front and collection of taxes to pay for government expenditures; an act that is part of fiscal policy in modern economics. However, these actions were not used as policy instruments. Additionally, the modern notion of monetary policy ...

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