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Perhaps Niall Ferguson Had A Point About Keynes

Posted by LetsShrug 11 years, 4 months ago to Economics
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"The world which Keynes built dominates academic economics. It is a world in which the vast majority of our business economists and analysts have been trained, and has been the basis of monetary policy during most of the Fed’s history. But as for the large large swaths of the world which do not believe in atheism and the ideals of the higher sodomy, don’t we have the right to think out loud and express concern about the possibility that the world built by Keynes is a world built on one man’s idiosyncratic personal religious and sexual views, which most of us do not share."

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  • Posted by richrobinson 11 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    History is our guide on this one. Look at the 20th century. Warren Harding inherited an economy in free fall from Woodrow Wilson. FDR inherited a recession from Herbert Hoover and Reagan got a recession from Jimmy Carter. Harding and Reagan instituted lower taxes and smaller government reforms. Both saw the economy rebound in about 18 months. FDR used a Keynsian approach and the economy rebounded briefly before tanking and becoming the Great Depression which lasted at least 10 years. Keynes was wrong and I don't care why.
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    Posted by salta 11 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    straightlinelogic, I agree with your entire comment except for one small point.
    I believe the problems caused by Keynes ideas is NOT that they don't work, its that they can appear work on sub-election-cycle timescales. The policy-makers have no interest in the long term, when we all have to pay for that short term appearance of success.
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    Posted by straightlinelogic 11 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Okay, his theories don't work, never have, never will. Austrian school economists and reality have demolished Keynes' theories innumerable times. Our current anemic economic recovery, funded by debt and Fed debt monetization, offers proof, and the coming debt collapse should finally bury his theories. However, it won't, because while Keynesianism is just as intellectually bankrupt now as it was when it failed to remedy the Great Depression, it serves as a cover for the state to tax, borrow, and spend. That is always the aim of statists, and they will use whatever any available intellectual fig leaf to justify their actions.
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  • Posted by khalling 11 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    You don 't leave our private lives out of discussions...
    I will denounce a person on all immoral judgements and acts. Often you find links. The article is even handed, in my opinion. And no, his theories are set up for second handers. Stealing, whether the lives of children or from your pocketbook.
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  • -3
    Posted by Maphesdus 11 years, 4 months ago
    If we're going to denounce Keynes, let's denounce him on the basis of whether or not his theories actually work, and leave his private life out of it.
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