Keynesian Economics and Climate Change
- Bill Maher: It seems … things that used to be just settled. You know, I used to think evolution was settled by the Scopes trial in the 20s. I used to think climate change, ya know we agreed that was really happening and man made. That's now, perhaps, a hoax. And the other one is Keynsian economics. I remember Nixon, in 1970, said, "We're all Keynsians." How un-controversial is Keynsian economics? Cause it seems they've opened that can of worms now too.
- Christina Romer (UC Berkeley Professor): So I think the basic idea that if you increase government spending or you cut people's taxes, that stimulates the economy and lowers the unemployment rate, is a very widely accepted idea. It's in every economics text book, that's what we teach our undergraduates, I certainly try to teach them the truth. And so it is, I think, a very known and accepted idea and fact and the emperical evidence is definitely there, and people just want to say the sky is green.
- Maher: Do you feel a kinship, economists like yourself, with climate scientists? It seems like you're both people who know real things that you study at a college.
- Romer: That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me.
