Super-Asinine Propensities

As Economix notes, Mark Thoma has coined the term "austerians" for those who are calling for budget cutting in the face of continued high unemployment. That's pretty good, but I think Keynes said it even better, as his biographer Robert Skidelsky writes in the FT:

When the Conservative-Liberal coalition that had succeeded the Labour government introduced an emergency budget in September 1931, Keynes again stood out against the chorus of approval. The budget was, he wrote, “replete with folly and injustice”. He explained to an American correspondent that “every person in this country of super-asinine propensities, everyone who hates social progress and loves deflation, feels that his hour has come and triumphantly announces how, by refraining from every form of economic activity, we can all become prosperous again.”

Speaking of Alan Greenspan... Paul Krugman, Andrew Leonard and Calculated Risk respond to his super-asinine WSJ op-ed. See also Andrew Leonard on Skidelsky's piece.

Update (6/23): Paul Krugman says: [A]nti-stimulus appeals to a fundamental meanness of spirit that is always present in the political world. The super-asinine we shall always have with us.