Comments on: Austrian Economics on Morning Ireland

By: nuig

nuig — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 14:25:46 +0000

The time has come to abolish Keynes bullshit theories and maybe to reach for “Human Action” of mises. We are turning the corner and the world we know if on the werge of collape thanks to keynes and rest of idiots. Please promote genuine economics and join us at http://www.gauge.ie.
Lets fight greed and counter fitting!
Roman

By: Pat Donnelly

Pat Donnelly — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 09:50:21 +0000

I must apologize if I may have implied that economists have prostituted their state subsidized education in order to mislead the gullible and ignorant into a belief that a government can create real currency.

I meant to expressly indict them!

By: Pat Donnelly

Pat Donnelly — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 09:46:30 +0000

The Austrians are dedicated to preventing governments from becoming Ponzi schemes via fiat. They have no love for gold or any barbrous relic. Commodities could easily form backing for a currency. The whole point of a currency, an HONEST currency, is that it can be naturally and consensually exchanged. Why do pundits and so called economists find this hard to understand? Ahhh, most of them are employed by governments!

By: Paul Power

Paul Power — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 09:10:51 +0000

The EconLib blog at http://econlog.econlib.org/ often has posts on specific issues that cover the various economic viewpoints, including the Austrians. It’s therefore very useful. Giving the fundamental assumptions underlying an analysis or point-of-view is sadly rather rare

By: Matt

Matt — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 22:17:49 +0000

*fondly remembers famous last words*:

“The problem of depression-prevention has been
solved, for all practical purposes.” –Robert Lucas, 2003

By: James

James — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 11:22:10 +0000

Ah come on, you didn’t need to be an Austrian to see a big property bubble in the US (and elsewhere).

By: karl deeter

karl deeter — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 00:28:12 +0000

Austrian economics comes under a lot of fire, but in their defence the proponents of it were some of the most vocal critics of the bubble we were going into - and furthermore recognised it as that.

By: Graham

Graham — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 13:19:49 +0000

“True, the current financial crisis may not have been possible if the gold standard still existed, but so much else would not have been possible either.”

Such as?

By: Graham

Graham — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 13:17:38 +0000

I’m impressed by this interview. I hope Jill will come with us on our next trip to the Mises Institute!

By: Ciaran

Ciaran — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 12:34:36 +0000

Well regardless of the opinion of the Austrians on this blog, I think we know who was right on predicting the crisis

Peter Schiff vs Art Laffer - 2006

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-x9hgx3tTY

Needless to say Peter Schiff is not predicting good times ahead for the US - Full Lecture on why meltdown should have surprised no one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgMclXX5msc&feature=player_embedded

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 01:52:27 +0000

Ahh understood.

By: LorcanRK

LorcanRK — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 01:39:12 +0000

Matt, sorry if my post lacked clarity.

The ‘they’ I was referring to in the line “their motivation generally seems to be personal profit rather than the betterment of society.” were the gold-bugs and tinfoilers, not the Mises institute.

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 01:11:08 +0000

“It strikes me that their main concern seems to be the federal reserve and the ‘creation of money’. Perhaps this is why they are so popular with goldbugs and tin-foilers everywhere, who crave a return to the gold standard. (Although from what I read in place like Kitco.com their motivation generally seems to be personal profit rather than the betterment of society.)”

Lorcan,

Please don’t fall into the stereotypical trap of marginalising the school of economics as “tin-foil hat”. The main concern of the Misesians is to advance the school’s teachings and to bring them into the public domain. The Mises Institute does not accept donations from corporations or the government - they are certainly not in it for the money.

By: LorcanRK

LorcanRK — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 00:40:56 +0000

I have always been a little wary of the Austrian/Alabaman school of economics as espoused by mises.org

It strikes me that their main concern seems to be the federal reserve and the ‘creation of money’. Perhaps this is why they are so popular with goldbugs and tin-foilers everywhere, who crave a return to the gold standard. (Although from what I read in place like Kitco.com their motivation generally seems to be personal profit rather than the betterment of society.)

The world has moved on from hard currencies. True, the current financial crisis may not have been possible if the gold standard still existed, but so much else would not have been possible either. Also, the solutions to the current crisis (QE) is only possible without a commodity backed currency.

To paraphrase Homer Simpson. “Fiat currency. The cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems”

Wonder how the Austrian’s will react if there is any legs in this story, that the UN is recommending an end to the $ as the world reserve currency.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE52H2CY20090318

By: Kevin O'Rourke

Kevin O'Rourke — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 22:52:17 +0000

Harford came across as a very polite man, which is to his credit.

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 22:06:10 +0000

And this may sould like a stupid question, but are there any Austrians, aka goldbugs, in UCD or TCD?

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 21:52:30 +0000

Tim Harford, like many others, struggles to comprehend the full breadth of Jill’s arguments because he probably isn’t familiar with it.

Suffice to say I haven’t seen a single decent critique of the Austrian Business Cycle Theory. Krugman and DeLong’s arguments against it contain so many strawmen it’s laughable. In my opinion they fail to get it becuase they have no conception of capital theory, and as such characaturise the ABCT as a problem of “overinvestment” In fact they fail to demonstrate they’ve read anything by Mises or Hayek.

DeLong admitted he was introduced to the work of Ludwig von Mises by Joe the Plumber. Greg Mankiw admitted he had never read Human Action.

For more on the ABCT see: http://mises.org/story/672