Morris Beschloss is a former corporate CEO, an economic analyst, writer and lecturer. He appears on television and radio and has a daily blog in newspapers across the USA. I asked him to write about the future of the economies of the countries around the world in the next 5 to 10 years. This is his response. As a background for our readers, Keynesian economic theory was developed by John Manyard Keynes, a British economist in the 1930s. Keynes believed that increased government spending during economic recessions could revive the economy. According to Dick Armey, a Professor of Economics and former Member of the US Congress (WSJ; February 4, 2009; “Washington could use less Keynes and more Hayek”), Keynes believed that “general employment was always positively correlated with the aggregate demand for consumer goods. Keynes argued that government should intervene in the economy to maintain aggregate demand and full employment, with the goal of smoothing out business cycles. During recessions, he asserted, government should borrow money and spend it.” His macroeconomic theories have been adopted by most western countries and have been embraced by the Obama administration in the USA. His policies are also the basis of Chinese economics, which is Marxist in origin. Friedrich Hayek, a contemporary of Keynes and a Noble economist from Austria, disagreed with Keynes and supported classic economic theory that advocated “balanced budgets and government restraint.” Another Nobel economist, James Buchanan, argued “that the great flaw in Keynesian economics is that it ignores the obvious self-interested incentives of government actors implementing fiscal policy and creates intellectual cover for what would otherwise be viewed as self-serving and irresponsible behavior by politicians. It is also very difficult to turn off the spigot in better economic times, and Keynes blithely ignored the long-term effects of financing an expanded deficit.” Armey stated that “if the government borrows the money for the stimulus, then it will either have to print money later or raise taxes to pay it back. If the government prints the money, it will increase inflation, which will decrease the value of the dollar … Hayek viewed the boom and bust of the business cycle as primarily a monetary phenomenon created by government’s artificial inflation of money and credit … The problem with government attempts to manipulate the economy through fiscal policy — spending that takes resources away from those who are productive and redistributes it to politically-favored interests — is that they are audacious. It assumes that government knows better how to spend and invest than individuals acting in their families’ best interest … no one spends someone else’s money better than they spend their own.” So, those are the opposing macroeconomic theories that are influencing the economies of the world today. What is happening in your country now and how will those changes affect your practice of medicine? Read Morrie’s comments below. — Editor-in-Chief