Is Austrian Economics Going Mainstream?
I'm not an economist, but of all the economists I read, the ones from the Austrian school tend to make more sense than most others. The thing is, they're sort of off the beaten path. I think I understand why they're not accepted into the "main stream" economic community, but we're not going to talk about that now.
(Sidebar: Think of "main stream" economists similarly to how you might thing of "main stream media" - with a dash of skepticism.)
But all of a sudden I'm noticing more people commenting on Austrian economics and Austrian business cycle theory (their understanding of how the business cycle works). The latest comments come from a rather high profile main stream economist, Brad DeLong. If you read this commentary, in fairness to DeLong, you'll be reading comments by an Austrian economist. So you can read it with a grain of salt. (Again, in fairness.)
But what really grabbed me about the author's comments was his pointing out of the obvious falacies in DeLong's critique. For example, DeLong imputes anti-Semitic tendencies to the recognized "godfather" of Austrian economics, Ludwig von Mises. He implies that somehow Austrian economics leads to an understanding similar to Nazi thinking, when, referring to Austrian theory he states, "in its scarier moments this train of thought slides over to: 'good German engineers (and workers); bad Jewish financiers'."
Now the thing is Ludwig von Mises was Jewish. Not only was he Jewish, but he had to escape the Nazis.
DeLong used to strike me as an intelligent guy, so what's up with this outrageous comment?
Maybe it's part of something I've been noticing. It sometimes seems like otherwise reasonable people are making more and more unreasonable, even ridiculous comments. Is this out of frustration because the Crisis keeps dragging on? Are some of these economists sick of not being able to identify what's wrong?
You've got to think that the Keynesians out there must be afraid to face the fact that in spite of all the government's interventions, nothing seems to have worked. The best they can come up with is that the government hasn't done enough. But anyone with a logical streak knows this is an assertion that can't be proved.
It must fray their nerves. What are they going to recommend now? More government intervention and spending? More of what hasn't worked?
Well, maybe it's a good sign that the Austrians are being talked about at all. I guess that's progress.
(Sidebar: Think of "main stream" economists similarly to how you might thing of "main stream media" - with a dash of skepticism.)
But all of a sudden I'm noticing more people commenting on Austrian economics and Austrian business cycle theory (their understanding of how the business cycle works). The latest comments come from a rather high profile main stream economist, Brad DeLong. If you read this commentary, in fairness to DeLong, you'll be reading comments by an Austrian economist. So you can read it with a grain of salt. (Again, in fairness.)
But what really grabbed me about the author's comments was his pointing out of the obvious falacies in DeLong's critique. For example, DeLong imputes anti-Semitic tendencies to the recognized "godfather" of Austrian economics, Ludwig von Mises. He implies that somehow Austrian economics leads to an understanding similar to Nazi thinking, when, referring to Austrian theory he states, "in its scarier moments this train of thought slides over to: 'good German engineers (and workers); bad Jewish financiers'."
Now the thing is Ludwig von Mises was Jewish. Not only was he Jewish, but he had to escape the Nazis.
DeLong used to strike me as an intelligent guy, so what's up with this outrageous comment?
Maybe it's part of something I've been noticing. It sometimes seems like otherwise reasonable people are making more and more unreasonable, even ridiculous comments. Is this out of frustration because the Crisis keeps dragging on? Are some of these economists sick of not being able to identify what's wrong?
You've got to think that the Keynesians out there must be afraid to face the fact that in spite of all the government's interventions, nothing seems to have worked. The best they can come up with is that the government hasn't done enough. But anyone with a logical streak knows this is an assertion that can't be proved.
It must fray their nerves. What are they going to recommend now? More government intervention and spending? More of what hasn't worked?
Well, maybe it's a good sign that the Austrians are being talked about at all. I guess that's progress.
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