"Along with the advent of Keynesian economics, the case for stabilizing fiscal policy was first made in the Great Depression. Seen against the background of a stagnant economy, deficit finance offered the most effective means to raise aggregate demand and consumption. With monetary policy caught in a liquidity trap, deficit spending seemed the available remedy to restore full employment. It would do so not only as a short run device over the cycle, but also to deal with a longer run prospect of declining population growth and creeping stagnation."