A Flawed Diagnosis

摘要

In a journalistic style, the engaging and ambitious The Body Economic jumps from economic to political to health issues, intermingling academic discussions with plenty of human-interest anecdotes. Overall, David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu present a picture in which Keynesian economics is the magic wand that fixes the economy and promotes health. Iceland, the New Deal, Sweden, and Britain under Labour are models for health and economic policy, while Greece, Spain, and Britain under the Conservative David Cameron are bad experiences to be avoided. By defending public spending, the "good guys"-Franklin D. Roosevelt, Barack Obama, Aneurin Bevan, Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Krugman-promote a vibrant economy and a healthy population, whereas the "bad guys"-Milton Friedman, Jeffrey Sachs, Angela Merkel, bankers, and the International Monetary Fund-bring on economic decay and disease. Unfortunately, things are a little bit more complex.