A great editorial in the Wall Street Journal that pronounces stimulus efforts a "dead end" and that the western governments must get their fiscal house in order:Like many bad ideas, the current Keynesian revival began under George W. Bush. Larry Summers, then a private economist, told Congress that a "timely, targeted and temporary" spending program of $150 billion was urgently needed to boost consumer "demand." Democrats who had retaken Congress adopted the idea-they love an excuse to spend-and the politically tapped-out Mr. Bush went along with $168 billion in spending and one-time tax rebates. Seventeen months later, and despite historically easy monetary policy for that entire period, the jobless rate is still 9.7%. Yesterday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis once again reduced the GDP estimate for first quarter growth, this time to 2.7%, while economic indicators in the second quarter have been mediocre. As the nearby table shows, this is a far cry...(Read Full Post)