All Posts Tagged With: "Keynesian economics"

TGIF: Being for the Free Market Isn't Enough

Harold Meyerson, an op-ed columnist for the Washington Post, this week launched a devastating attack on what he calls “mainstream economists.” Too bad he’s oblivious of Austrian economics. The rest of TGIF is here.

2Oct2009 | | 2 comments | Continued

Human Action, 1949: A Dramatic Episode in Intellectual History

A great book, it has been remarked, is like a great castle. It can be viewed from many different angles, each offering a unique perspective. Viewing Ludwig von Mises’s monumental work from the vantage of 2009 permits one to see with great clarity one fascinating aspect of the book–the sheer drama of its emergence at [...]

19Aug2009 | | 5 comments | Continued

A Triple Whammy for Austrian Economics

They say that when economic times are good businesses can get away with sloppy practices. In the intellectual world, however, it seems that sloppy thinking prevails in desperate times and important distinctions get thrown out the window. A good example of this appeared recently in a March 4 New York Times article titled “Ivory Tower [...]

19Aug2009 | | 10 comments | Continued

Rizzo on Samuelson

Mario Rizzo, an economist for whom I have the deepest respect, has some important things to say about a recent article by Paul Samuelson, who has had so much to do with constructing mainstream economics. Read it here.

16Jun2009 | | 0 comments | Continued

Keynesian Cons

My latest article in The American Conservative is here.  A teaser: Indeed, you would be hard-pressed to find a conservative who admits to being an orthodox Keynesian, conservatives having joined the Church of the Supply Side many years ago. But though Keynesianism tends to be associated with big-government “liberalism”—in its original form, liberalism stood for [...]

23Apr2009 | | 0 comments | Continued

TGIF: Free to Consume, Or Not

As someone who is rather less eager to consume than previously, I feel harassed by the government, mainstream economists, and news media. You may feel the same way. Apparently, we aren’t consuming enough to suit them. At least that’s what they want us to think. More than that, they want us to feel guilty and [...]

7Mar2009 | | 0 comments | Continued

Was Money Really Easy Under Greenspan?

Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan has become everyone’s favorite scapegoat. His policies allegedly caused, or at least contributed to, the current financial crisis. He is attacked from the left for lax financial regulation, from the right for loose monetary policy, and from the middle for both. Yet two years ago, on leaving office, Greenspan [...]

2Mar2009 | | 7 comments | Continued

Keynes and Public Works

From Mario Rizzo: The eminent economist John Maynard Keynes is having a moment these days, as policymakers and pundits search for answers to the current economic problems. . . .But if we are going to attempt to solve the problems of today by drawing inspiration from Keynes, then we should pay attention to his mature [...]

24Feb2009 | | 0 comments | Continued

Contra Keynes

Freeman contributor Arthur Foulkes shows the weakness of the Keynesian interpretation of depression and recovery in this Terre Haute Tribune Star column.Hat tip: Robert Murphy at Free Advice.

10Feb2009 | | 0 comments | Continued

A Nobel Prize in Economics for Maddow?

I know she’s way too easy a target to bother with really, but check out what passes for economic argument on cable television. It’s from Rachel Maddow of MSNBC; an excerpt selected by a sympathizer who found it “especially compelling.” (I won’t inflict the video on you, but it’s here.) Cutting food-stamp funding to attract [...]

9Feb2009 | | 0 comments | Continued

Remember the Broken Window!

The debate over what kind of government spending will “stimulate” or not “stimulate” the economy is beside the point. As Bastiat taught us, and Henry Hazlitt reminded us, you have to consider what is “not seen”–what will not happen if the government borrows and spends scarce resources. That is all that really matters in this [...]

7Feb2009 | | 0 comments | Continued

Keynes v. Hayek

Former U.S. Rep. Dick Armey has an excellent op-ed contrasting the views of Hayek and Keynes in today’s Wall Street Journal. “Washington Could Use Less Keynes and More Hayek” is here. A sample: Hayek, who famously debated Keynes in a series of articles after the release of “General Theory,” gave what I believe to be [...]

4Feb2009 | | 0 comments | Continued

The Goal Is Freedom: Washington Logic

Let me see if I have this straight. The U.S. government is going to borrow $819-$??? billion, largely from the Chinese (if they’ll lend it, which they may not) and put that money into people’s pockets in a hundred different ways, from paying workers for filling potholes, to extending unemployment benefits, to expanding Medicare, to [...]

30Jan2009 | | 0 comments | Continued

On Rhetoric

I tend to think that labels and rhetorically eloquent phrases are an ineffective trick of rhetoric that allows individuals (and, perhaps, particulary politicians) to avoid expressing real thoughts.  Take, for instance, the term “stimulus spending.”  At face value, these words imply two things: first, that there is actual money being spent, and that by spending [...]

29Jan2009 | | 0 comments | Continued

Krugman Watch, cont'd.

[I]t’s clear that when it comes to economic stimulus, public [taxpayer] spending provides much more bang for the buck than tax cuts — and therefore costs less per job created … — because a large fraction of any tax cut will simply be saved. –“Bad Faith Economics” And saving has absolutely nothing to do with [...]

26Jan2009 | | 2 comments | Continued

Bottom Line

[T]here is no way for government macroeconomic policy to correct an incorrect perception of how [savings/consumption] plans have changed. There is no way for government to acquire the knowledge necessary to be able to coordinate individual plans. Such information simply does not exist. If it is going to ever exist it will be generated by [...]

24Jan2009 | | 0 comments | Continued

The Myth of Public Works as an Economic Stimulus

Words to ponder as the stimulus bill snakes through Congress: While we have legitimate infrastructure needs, public-works spending historically has been too slow, has delayed private and local government spending, and created few jobs for the unemployed. The programs are not labor-intensive and require skills few unemployed have. Public works did not end the Great [...]

23Jan2009 | | 0 comments | Continued
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