60 sats \ 3 replies \ @om 3 Apr \ parent \ on: Markets and Science are Self Correcting in the Long Run FiresidePhilosophy
Keynesianism is fringe!? I wish. The nonsense is everywhere now. We are the fringe ones.
One and half hundred years ago Bastiat basically nailed it and the belief in central planning is a downgrade from Bastiat's understanding, and one hundred years ago they also had Boem-Bawerk to read, and all to no avail. And Keynesians and MMT'ers might not believe in full central planning now but some want "stakeholder capitalism" which means that the companies should follow goals set by the government but they get to plan how to do so best. Basically communism with extra steps.
When Marco Polo returned to Venice and reported that the khan of the Mongol Empire forbids gold circulation and issues paper money instead, Venetians refused to believe that any people would tolerate such obvious abuse.
Islamic civilisation managed not to debase its golden coins.
Maybe Venetian and Islamic attempts do not yet look like what we'd call science, but communist's critiques of Boem-Bawerk already do look the part - and they're total nonsense.
Keynesianism is sort of fringe, just not amongst people who go to work for the Fed. Most economists are neoclassical micro people who don't put much stock in modern macro. Even some macro people see the importance of micro-foundations for macro theories.
Think about a damped oscillator. It doesn't always move towards it's final state, but the swings become smaller over time.
None of the Austrian work ever represented the mainstream of the profession.
reply
Keynesianism is sort of fringe, just not amongst people who go to work for the Fed.
The governments have officially blamed Monetarism for GFC even though they printed way more money than Monetarists recommended and GFC is exactly the sort of thing that Monetarists expect in such a case.
Most economists are neoclassical micro people who don't put much stock in modern macro.
Most economists were educated before GFC and the goverment can't just flip a switch to make them all Keynesians. I would describe the micro people who don't put much stock in modern macro as economists who see the scam but are too afraid to call it out because they're paid by the public funds, that is, the government. The problem however is that public universities educate new economists in Keynesianism these days.
Would you also describe the Soviet biologists living in times of Lysenko as non-geneticists who don't put too much stock in modern (from their viewpoint) genetics? My point is that we're exactly in this situation.
Think about a damped oscillator. It doesn't always move towards it's final state, but the swings become smaller over time.
Yeah I know how convergence works. I just don't see the swings becoming smaller.
reply
You're putting way too much stock in the messaging that comes out of the US Government. That's not what anyone is talking about when they talk about the scientific process.
I don't think the Soviet Union prevented biology from converging on the truth, just because they imposed a stupid ideology within their borders for a limited period of time.
We can agree to disagree, though.
reply