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  Andy - you are lumping in Friedman and Keynes together, it is an excessive adherence to Keynes' approach, to the extent that it get perverted, that screws up the economy and leads to to the present predicament.
  
  Friedman of course gained his name from being the saviour of at least two South American economies and was one of the key economic thinkers that informed Keith Joseph. He of course was not original, his approach was based on Hayak who himself had a grounding in Adam Smith. Therefore 'Friedman economics' has a much longer pedigree than Keynes.
  
  Much of what we may call 'Brown economics' is based on a misinterpretation of Keynes, to be fair. Labour love Keynes because it gives them an excuse for economic intervention and excessive spending, but they take it too far and do not know when to stop. The antidote to Labour spending sprees is a dose of Friedmanite economics, but I have to say that even those like I, who are fans of the Friedman approach do accept that there is a case for some well judged increased borrowing in a downturn provided you pay it back in the subsequent upturn.
  
  Labour currently in using Keynes to justify their economics are conveniently ignoring the already excessive borrowing we had at the start of the downturn.
  
  I have my well thumbed copies of Friedman and Hayak here in my office!

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