Comments on: Progressive Pile-Up On the Austrians!!

By: TGGP

TGGP — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 02:27:42 +0000

So are you in your death-throes, or are mainstream macro schools?

By: Yancey Ward

Yancey Ward — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 18:09:51 +0000

TGGP,

I still expect to die before the present financial regime collapses totally, and I wouldn’t bet against the proposition that the proponents of that system don’t find a way to blame “that guy over there” for causing the collapse with his impertinent predictions.

However, on a purely empirical basis, Keynesianism is being shown to be folly once again. And note, inflationism is an old ideology, Keynes just dressed it in new clothing.

By: TGGP

TGGP — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 02:27:13 +0000

“which made a crash inevitable”
Could it have been a crash that occurred a thousand years in the future? Markets go up and markets go down, anyone predicting a crash can wait forever to be vindicated. Some Austrians also claim that the longer the boom goes on, the bigger the ensuing necessary correction, but from what I’ve heard the size/duration of busts is correlated with subsequent rather than preceding booms.

“just as the dreaded Mellon had recommended”
The imaginary Mellon, but most probably not the real one.

Yancey Ward, for any date in the near-to-medium-term future you care to offer, I bet Keynesian economics (even if just in some “bastard” New Keynesian form) will be thriving and Austrian economics will still be about where it is now.

Brian Shelley, Krugman was mocking Austrians back when he was writing for Slate rather than the NYT. My guess (and I have no training in economics or experience with grad school) is that grad students are still not being told about Austrian economics.

By: Brian Shelley

Brian Shelley — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 01:30:05 +0000

The dramatic rise of the Austrian school amazes me. I spent 6 1/2 years of college studying economics, and had one professor who brought it up occassionally. For the most part, I knew nothing about it. Now, it has become so well known that Krugman and Yglesias spend their time attacking it 3 times in a week. Why, oh Krugman, must you devote so much time to disparage a fringe? I suspect because it has become your rival.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 22:18:34 +0000

“I like how these critics either don’t understand or misrepresent the Austrian perspective, then lampoon and criticize it, and applaud themselves for being more learned.”

Its the basic straw man fallacy. It works wonders on the masses.

By: Downunder

Downunder — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:03:06 +0000

Gee Robert, its a tough argument to sell. I’ve had conversations with people about this, and they say that a shallow and prolonged recession is better than a really sharp but short contraction.

Partly because they worry the economy may not be able to recover after a really steep decline; and partly because of concerns about unemployment. Obviously, under the liquidationist model, far more people are going to lose their jobs, many of whom may never be re-employed (due to ‘scarring’). From my experience, most people strongly believe that it is the legitimate role of government to “smooth out the business cycle.”

By: Jinto

Jinto — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 20:09:28 +0000

“Where’s Bryan Caplan when you need him? You can disagree with him, but at least that guy is intellectually honest and actually understands what the hell he’s criticizing.”

Kind of like he understands Wicksellian Framework: not at all.

OOOOH SNAP!!

By: J Cortez

J Cortez — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:39:01 +0000

I like how these critics either don’t understand or misrepresent the Austrian perspective, then lampoon and criticize it, and applaud themselves for being more learned.

Where’s Bryan Caplan when you need him? You can disagree with him, but at least that guy is intellectually honest and actually understands what the hell he’s criticizing.

By: Yancey Ward

Yancey Ward — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 16:57:03 +0000

I don’t know if the Austrians have the absolute best explanations for what has occurred, but it is clear the other major macroeconomic schools have demonstrated their massive failures. I strongly suspect the attacks we are seeing now are the death throes of those schools. Note how Yglesias is trying to paint The Administration’s failures as Austrian. They are truly lost.