Hayek vs. Keynes: Epic Rap Battle | 13 comments (12 topical, 1 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Hayek vs. Keynes: Epic Rap Battle (4.00 / 2)

It seems to me that there is something of a logical broad leap between asserting that a bust is caused by "malinvestment" - which is of course true - and the assertion that government stimulus will make things worse - which seems predicated on the wholly arbitrary assessment that government malinvests more than private investors.

In fact, purely from the point of view of a prudent manager of the public purse, it would be downright negligent not to attempt to make major public investments take place during recessions. There being less other economic activity with which to compete, public projects will, ceteris paribus, be cheaper to perform during a recession.

So underlying this is the unstated assumption that there are either no economically sound government projects or that the government is incapable of identifying and executing them.

Hoover Dam would beg to differ.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Wed Jan 27th, 2010 at 05:38:05 AM EST

Re: Hayek vs. Keynes: Epic Rap Battle (4.00 / 2)

Hayek, I gather, was repelled by the totalitarian governments of Hitler and, especially, Stalin and viewed socialism as a "gateway drug" to totalitarianism, but I have never been inspired to hold my nose long enough to get beyond reviews. It seems a monstrous irony that his views have turned out to have been "The Road to Serfdom" and his backers and patrons the masters of the former nominally democratic serfs who he has helped deliver into their reduced circumstances.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Wed Jan 27th, 2010 at 10:18:35 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hayek vs. Keynes: Epic Rap Battle (none / 1)

Friedrich Hayek - Wikiquote

It is possible for a dictator to govern in a liberal way. And it is also possible for a democracy to govern with a total lack of liberalism. Personally I prefer a liberal dictator to democratic government lacking liberalism.
Interview in El Mercurio (1981)

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jan 27th, 2010 at 11:28:06 AM EST
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Re: Hayek vs. Keynes: Epic Rap Battle (none / 1)

I wonder if Pinochet and the Shah qualified as "liberal."

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Wed Jan 27th, 2010 at 12:34:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hayek vs. Keynes: Epic Rap Battle (4.00 / 2)

Who did you say published that quote, and in what year?

Wikipedia: national newspapers of Chile

El Mercurio de Santiago - The paper of record in Chile; founded in 1900

El Mercurio is a conservative Chilean newspaper with editions in Valparaíso and Santiago. Its Santiago edition is considered the country's paper-of-record and its Valparaíso edition is the oldest daily in the Spanish language currently in circulation.

You can stop wondering.

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jan 27th, 2010 at 01:14:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hayek vs. Keynes: Epic Rap Battle (none / 1)

Ah. I see.

Murdering labour union members: Acceptable expression of liberal policy.

Nationalising copper mines: The penultimate checkpoint on the path to a totalitarian nightmare.

The wonders of the far-right mind...

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Wed Jan 27th, 2010 at 02:40:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hayek vs. Keynes: Epic Rap Battle (4.00 / 3)

Not to mention keeping copper mines nationalised being an acceptable expression of liberal policy,

by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Wed Jan 27th, 2010 at 03:12:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hayek vs. Keynes: Epic Rap Battle (4.00 / 2)

Murdering labour union members: Acceptable expression of liberal policy.

That was only the overture. They rounded up all who had supported Allende in the National Stadium and I believe most of them were killed. We have family friends who just avoided being included. The husband was a TV news man and the wife was an artist. They had been Allende supporters and fortunately had been in Venezuela for one of the wife's exhibitions when the coup occurred.

Pinochet basically blew out the brains of all he could find who had a social conscience. I had known about Kissenger and Friedman. Guess Hayek makes it an unholy trinity. Makes one wish there were a Hell in which they could rot. Instead, all three get Nobel Prizes, Kissenger the Peace Prize. No evil deed goes unrewarded.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Wed Jan 27th, 2010 at 06:31:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hayek vs. Keynes: Epic Rap Battle (4.00 / 2)

I've spent the last year or so thinking about follow-ups to the Economics for Dummies diary.

It might not be obvious, but there's an anthropological model where this kind of thing makes perfect sense. It's not moral sense, and it's not left-wing moral sense, but it is completely self-consistent.

It's also why the right is so dangerous. If you take away democracy - in the ragged sense of popular influence on power - and replace it with liberalism in the sense that people like Hayek meant it, you cannot help but get fascism and violence.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Thu Jan 28th, 2010 at 02:53:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hayek vs. Keynes: Epic Rap Battle (4.00 / 2)

i used to mosey over to the mises institute website to try and learn how economies get so screwed up, back in 2004.

especially clear in the comments, they were very like republicans. uncaring people.

keynes had a much better sense of humour. viz. J's sig.

f* addled adolph for inoculating the public against the word 'socialism', and robbing it of positive significance.

that might have been as great an inhumanity as any of his other, better known fails.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Wed Jan 27th, 2010 at 01:59:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Hayek vs. Keynes: Epic Rap Battle | 13 comments (12 topical, 1 editorial, 0 hidden)

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