Robbing Peter to pay... Peter's creditor

Governments got religion after peering into the systemic meltdown abyss: aggressive and comprehensive policy action is now likely but significant downside risks to markets will remain by Nouriel Roubini

" A key policy tool – that is currently missing in the G7 and EU plans is to use fiscal policy to boost aggregate demand. ... If the private sector does not spend and/or cannot spend old fashioned traditional Keynesian spending by the government is necessary. It is true that we are already having large and growing budget deficits; but $300 bn of public works is more effective and productive than spending $700 bn to buy toxic assets. I[f] such fiscal stimulus plan is not rapidly implemented any improvement in the financial conditions of financial institution[s] that the rescue plans will provide will be undermined – in a matter of six months – with an even sharper drop of aggregate demand that will make an already severe recession even more severe."

OK, so the experts who work for the world's economic elite, who live on the top of a pyramid are scared because the pyramid's capstone is deteriorating and looking unstable. So they wisely decide not to allow nature to take its course. Instead they try to reinforce it, by taking bricks from the pyramid below the capstone. Amazing.

Eh, but why listen to a crank like Roubini (note foreign-sounding name!), he's only been uncommonly prescient over the past few years... for an economist.