Most of the yip-yapping is whether it's working or not, Ed. Gun slingers of both sides can provide evidence it is or isn't, depending on particular circumstances and interpretations of the economy.

The Keynesian remedy worked against unemployment and depression but not in reverse against inflation. It worked during Depression years with FDR, faltered when big business got him to dump it, and the ensuing slump was rescued by the war.

I look at it this way: It's working or it wouldn't be used. When financial chaos descended around the world, we heard of corporations being too big to fail and then within a few years, as in the EU, governments too big to fail.

Angela Merkel spent German treasure to keep weak economies afloat on terms of reform. Economies, by and large, were so interdependent there was no other option. Germany didn't want an invasion of jobless from southern Europe.

The US had already screwed up with weak regulations. Under stress from a waning economy and military adventures, it chose between letting its financial and industrial infrastructure go under---as capitalism is supposed to work---and spending with hopes of evading chaos.

Hopes. Expectations of something better.