Even if the government spends itself into bankruptcy and the

Host: The city had gone quiet after the storm — the kind of silence that comes when the world is still deciding whether it survived or simply paused. The streets were slick with rain, reflecting the red and blue glow of neon signs flickering like exhausted heartbeats. In a small corner diner, the last refuge of late thinkers and lost causes, Jack and Jeeny sat across from each other, the rain-streaked window behind them blurring the night into abstraction.

Between two half-empty cups of coffee, a newspaper lay open. The headline read about a government bailout, an economic stimulus, and a deficit stretching toward infinity. Above the folded crease, Jeeny had written a quote in neat black ink:

*“Even if the government spends itself into bankruptcy and the economy still does not recover, Keynesians can always say that it would have worked if only the government