February 22, 2009 5:10PM # The “Last Word on Fiscal Stimulus” Explained By [Alan Reynolds](https://www.cato.org/people/alan-reynolds) --- SHARE Back in *1977* I gave a talk at the Tax Foundation which was quickly added to Campbell McConnell’s best selling Economics textbook. At the back of each chapter, McConnell added just one select reading, called “The Last Word.” [He gave *me* the last word on fiscal policy.](https://www.cato.org/2009/02/14/the-last-word-on-fiscal-stimulus/) I found out about it many years later when my daughter Melissa found her dad inside her college textbook (a much newer edition). Apparently my old words had been confusing or enlightening the youth of America for well over a decade. Because I failed to explain all that, my blog was edited in a way that makes it look as though I was inserting my old remarks *to argue with* McConnell. On the contrary, that excerpt of mine was *quoted directly* from his book. It still holds up fairly well, I imagine, as heresies go. And now you know the rest of the story. ##### Related Tags [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).