Comments on: Come Back Keynes, All Is Forgiven!

By: Brendan

Brendan — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 07:13:40 +0000

Of course, the frustrating thing is that as soon as we enter the upside of the boom/bust cycle, Keynes will again be relegated to the dustbin – the current events conveniently forgotten as once again laissez faire is embraced and governement interference condemened as “crippling the free markets”…

No one wants to pay insurance premiums while the going is good, but as soon as things go wrong, aid is demanded!!

By: stubbornmule

stubbornmule — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 06:53:01 +0000

@AJ: ad hominem literally translates as “to the man” and, to use an alternative expression, means playing the man not the ball.

By: AJ

AJ — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 05:43:23 +0000

…..I’ve always wondered what ad hominem meant. Someome wanna save me the effort?

…..and if there’s a Damon Wayans screenplay out there, please let me know.

I grew up a Keynesian, so I’m biased in thinking it is an entirely pragmatic and sensible economic religion, and not extreme or fundamentalist in its policy prescriptions. From the benefit of weekend reading, I discovered that Keynes’ interventionist theories were on the basis of saving capitalism from itself! So the idea that free marketeers perpetuate about it being socialist, or in some other way evil, don’t really stand up to the evidence (which their theory never did anyway, as evidenced by boom and bust, and which is why the Nobel committee quite rightly overlooked Mt Fama for the economics prize). Unfettered free markets are undeniably good for those blessed with power and privelage, though we all know where free market-lite ends up….here. As a quick digression, it seems to me that pure and unfettered capitalism and communism are hardly distinguishable, the difference being whether it’s the government or an organised corporate sector that run the show.

And from one of the great conservatives, Reagan himself: Government exists to save us from each other, not to save us from ourselves. Whether he realised it or not, it seems to contradict the basis of the totally free, do-what-u-want market.

By: stubbornmule

stubbornmule — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 22:38:03 +0000

@Big Gav: You’ll have to let us know if you get a response to your email. I’d be intrigued to hear what West had to say.

By: Big Gav

Big Gav — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 13:34:35 +0000

The West article was really odd – so much so that I emailed asking if it was really him that wrote it, which received an interesting response.

The whole “liberal fascism” oxymoron is just a neoconservative way of trying to project their own faults onto their opponents if you ask me (which makes it all the odder that West and Fairfax would publish it).

By: stubbornmule

stubbornmule — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 12:27:19 +0000

@Steve: Yes, I did see West’s piece. It struck me as little more than an ad hominem attack, lacking much in the way of economic substance.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 12:00:53 +0000

For more on Keynes, check out Michael West’s typically acerbic column in yesterday’s Fairfax papers: “Keynes is dead, let’s bury him”.

http://business.theage.com.au/business/keynes-is-dead-lets-bury-him-20081016-5205.html

By: stubbornmule

stubbornmule — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 06:49:27 +0000

@Dan: Sounds like a good idea. Also, I think that you and I should get a head start on the digging…

By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 05:51:58 +0000

Excellent :-)

Can we use Sovereign Hill as the local site for Keynes ‘laissez-faire’ Coalmine initiative?

By: Michael Michael

Michael Michael — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:40:57 +0000

Sure, but Maynard Keynes is no Keenen Wayans. I haven’t studied the screenplay per se, but I’m sure there are some awesome aphorisms buried in the movie ‘Little Man’. It’s a man who’s little, for God’s sake – we can ALL learn from that story!