The Planner-in-Chief

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While attending a Catholic mass recently, I heard the priest, during the part where various supplications are made, say something like, "Lord, we beseech thee, grant to the leaders of our government the wisdom to implement economic policies that will create jobs for all those who are currently suffering unemployment."

I was quite struck by this image of God as the macroeconomic planner-in-chief. I expected to hear the priest follow up with something like, "And Lord, may you give state officials the ability to achieve just the right level of M2 growth, and lead them not into the temptation to run deficits during a boom, but deliver them from the evil of a liquidity trap."

Well, I suppose we all have our Keynesian cross to bear.

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