This American Life recently did an excellent show about John Maynard Keynes; especially regarding his life, his economic policy, and how it relates to Obama's stimulus plan. I've got fairly clear views politically, but find it nearly impossible to "pick a side" when it comes to economics: both sides of the big issues seem to make an equal amount of sense. This may be over-simplified, but I believe I can summarize the argument to four levels:

1.) Anti-Keynesian: FDR and his New Deal are given more credit than he deserves; his policies may have even extended the depression.

2.) Keynesian: The New Deal was mishandled; most of the gains it could have fostered were negated by tax increases and efforts to balance the budget.

3.) Anti-Keynesian: Economic downturns shouldn't be meddled with in the first place: they are nothing more than natural correction cycles.

4.) Keynesian: Even if that's true, without intervention, a recession will fall into a downward spiral and destroy the economy: less production -> less spending -> even less production -> even less spending, and so on, ad infinitum.

I'm not quite clear on how inflation fits into this; who can take it further?