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Guns or Butter

I don't remember my economics professor's name from that 1962 class, but I sure remember the textbook, even though I traded it for a different one the next semester: Economics: An Introductory Analysis, by Nobel Prize-winning economist, Paul Samuelson.

By Ken Brownlee, CPCU | Updated on November 01, 2015

I don’t remember my economics professor’s name from that 1962 class, but I sure remember the textbook, even though I traded it for a different one the next semester: Economics: An Introductory Analysis, by Nobel Prize-winning economist, Paul Samuelson. (Economics is necessary when one works full-time and commutes to college full-time.) What I remember most about the text was the lengthy discussions of “guns or butter,” the basics of politics from Greek and Roman times. Will we spend our bounty on war, or will we improve the world around us?

When this was written in August, it was hard to guess what Washington would do about the October 1 spending deadline. There are many options, but given our constipated Congress, it is hard to know whether they will do something and get off the pot, or let the opportunity pass and shut down the nation as they have done before. It is a war of wills. [Fortunately, they did not shut down the government again.]

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