tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3634628224045926034.post2191094127675452209..comments2023-08-29T01:27:13.772-07:00Comments on Magpie's Asymmetric Warfare: Was Keynes a Conservative?Magpiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07528637318288802178noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3634628224045926034.post-60853009556629515622014-08-14T22:39:29.131-07:002014-08-14T22:39:29.131-07:00Tao,
Sure, there are differences between Hayek an...Tao,<br /><br />Sure, there are differences between Hayek and Keynes. But, for me, the differences between them sometimes seem so small as to make the choice look largely meaningless.<br /><br />----------<br /><br />If you haven't read it yet, try Skidelsky's essay. It's interesting, without being really objective or impartial. Sure, he does his best to sound impartial in his Hayek and Keynes comparison, but you can tell that's more for show than anything else. <br /><br />Regardless, his account of Keynes and his followers is very telling. He doesn't use the same words, but he describes Keynes in ways that remind Hayek's own description. <br /><br />Read Skidelsky's description of Keynes and you'll see a portrait of many of Keynes' current internet fan boys, to the point that I wonder if some of these guys are actually following that description as a kind of a guide, a deliberate choice. <br /><br />Like "Keynes believed/liked/disliked/did this, then so will I". <br /><br />For me, it was a bit of an epiphany.Magpiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07528637318288802178noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3634628224045926034.post-88974976382666349542014-08-14T21:27:57.679-07:002014-08-14T21:27:57.679-07:00If there's a difference between Hayek's an...If there's a difference between Hayek's and Keynes' philosophies, it lies in Keynes' disdain for financial speculators (the "rentiers"). Hayek, as a fairly run-of-the-mill utilitarian, had no problem with financial speculators. Keynes rightly understood that such speculation drove recessions and depressions, and his policy recommendation for the government to be "the investor of last resort" when private credit dried up was aimed at killing financial speculation while leaving the rest of the financial system intact.<br /><br />I view all mainstream economic theories as systems of rhetoric intended to hide the source and nature of social power in our society. For his part, Marx tried to explode the system of rhetoric put forth by the classical economists, and I think Post Keynesians like Steve Keen are trying to actually be scientific and describe how economies actually work, but even Steve Keen carries the water of the powers that be.Tao Jonesinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10041034009270339963noreply@blogger.com