4 ms·
This almost reads like a parody. It's as if the author completely disregards the fact that the Austrian school exists at all. I particularly like the referenc
by jMyles 13y ago
This almost reads like a parody. It's as if the author completely disregards the fact that the Austrian school exists at all.
I particularly like the reference to the 'deflationary' nature of the Great Depression while glossing over the fact that the prescribed solution (the establishment of a central bank) occurred less than two decades before it.
- fragsworth 13y agoAnd by most historic interpretations, that centralization actually caused it.
- gnaritas 13y agoCitation.
- gahahaha 13y agoAll serious economists disregard the Austrian school. And with good reason - they're kooks. There was a central bank during the great depression but the US was still on the gold standard until 1933. When it went off the gold standard the great depression stopped getting worse and started getting better: http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2011/09/yes-recovery-in-the-great-depression-started-with-roosevelt-stephen-williamson-takes-to-his-fainting-couch-department.html http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2011/09/yes-recovery-in-the-gr...
- gnaritas 13y ago> It's as if the author completely disregards the fact that the Austrian school exists at all. Because they don't really, they're cranks, not a serious field of study. The Austrian school is equivalent to the flat earth society. Their answer to every possible economic issue is the same, the magic market will heal itself. When you have one answer for everything, you don't get to call yourself a serious field of study.
- philwelch 13y agoI think it's important to distinguish between historic Austrians, like Hayek, and the nutjob libertarian variety that tried to turn economics into an apologia for anarchocapitalism, like Rothbard.
- gnaritas 13y agoI'll make the distinction if you'll explain to me what Hayek proposes other than let the market handle it. From what I've seen, they're all cranks, Hayek included. The Austrian school of thought is little more than don't touch the market, you'll break it, it's magic and it'll always work. That's not a serious field of study; that's a golden hammer theory.
- philwelch 13y agoHayek is tendentious, but he made substantive contributions to the science. Rothbard didn't even do that: he was a libertarian political activist masquerading as an economist.
- gnaritas 13y agoYou've already said that, but that's not what I asked, I asked what those contributions were beyond "the magic market will fix it".