[S]timulus programs are worse than a wash and are really a negative, since instead of allowing a non-stimulus economic environment, a government stimulus program distorts and takes, in one form or another money from others, mostly by some form of coercion, and then runs it through the government bureaucracy and then doles it out to those who can influence government power centers. This folks is an anti-stimulus. anti-free market program.
Wenzel links to Arthur Laffer making a similar point in the Wall Street Journal.
The fundamental undeniable fact of the universe is that
human beings act but with very limited knowledge of each other's subjective
values. Further, humans engage in voluntary cooperative economic exchange where
each party believes he/she has improved her condition. There is no "equivalence" in such
an exchange except for the approximate valuation given to the transaction by
the use of money. Such transactions are
often referred to as "spending" but that provides an incomplete
picture because such a reference focuses only upon the buyer.
The fundamental basis of the Keynesian worldview is to
ignore the underlying fundamental reality of human exchange and to suggest,
without basis in fact or theory, that the exchange process is analogous to
physics. According to this "windup
toddler toy model" of economics, the process of voluntary exchange allegedly
requires an external source to provide it with "momentum" or
"stimulus". The free actors
left to themselves will allegedly not be able to generate the necessary
"momentum" for the toy to spin to its full potential so that the
process needs a source of ubiquitous external oversight in the form of the
totalitarian-minded Keynesians to provide that "momentum". How convenient.
Due either to stupidity or dishonesty (probably both), the
Keynesians must always focus upon "spending" while insisting that two
completely different phenomena, voluntary exchange and government
"spending" are really the same thing.
Not only that, but they insist that government "spending" can
replace private "spending" in a positive manner. Not only that, but they insist that a lack of
private spending suggests a lack of "momentum" which can be and must
be provided by government "spending".
In reality, the only thing that the creation of fiat funny
money can functionally accomplish is to steal purchasing power from those
holding the existing money to those getting the new money. It is likely that those getting the new money
will probably "spend" it sooner than the real owners of the purchasing
power would have, thereby making the dimwitted Keynesian think he has provided
the necessary "momentum" to the "spending" process. The catastrophic secondary effect is to
distort the pricing process, the information system necessary for informed
economic calculation. The only thing
that government "spending" can accomplish is to steal resources from
others and [mis]direct those resources as the government chooses. Since the real owner of those resources was probably
not "spending" in the present time as fast as the Keynesian deemed
appropriate and while the government was
"spending" in the present time, the dimwitted Keynesian can shout
with joy that he has provided the necessary "momentum" (stimulus) to
the "windup toddler toy" that is his "model" of free
exchange. In reality, those resources
have simply been misdirected, but the "spending" itself has distorted
the price system and thus impaired informed economic calculation.
Because the "economy" is not a windup toddler toy
and does not possess or lack momentum, the entire Keynesian theory and
worldview is preposterous.
Naturally, the MMTers, Delong, and DavidGlasser, "FTC economist", mock Laffer while ignoring the
fundamental problem of the Keynesian Hoax.
UPDATE: In in the 39 years since I've became an Austrian, I think I've found about 4 anti-Austrians who even knew the basic subject matter of the Austrian School. The commenters at the David Glasner blog ain't one of them.
UPDATE: In in the 39 years since I've became an Austrian, I think I've found about 4 anti-Austrians who even knew the basic subject matter of the Austrian School. The commenters at the David Glasner blog ain't one of them.
In the 39 years since you became an austrian you've probably never made a single argument that wasn't filled to the brim with pure undiluted bullshit!
ReplyDeleteAnon,
DeleteYour response to Bob's post is void of any intellectual honesty.
I just live to read such thoughtful and thorough refutations of the Austrian School. Thanks for making my day. Seriously.
ReplyDeleteYou don't even really represent the "austrian school". At best you represent the most extreme end of the simpleton Rothbardian fringe. You'll seize on any argument, no matter how devoid of factual content, to justify your pathological hatred of all things government. Stop deluding yourself, you're not an "austrian school" theorist, you're not an economics expert, you're just a loony person filled with hatred for a world which you clearly find very difficult to understand.
ReplyDeleteYou know. Now that I think about it, you are so right. I'm just a horrible person. Imagine me foolishly thinking that the initiation of violence is a bad thing and trying to convince others that it is a bad thing. I'm just an awful person. Thanks for the heads-up.
Delete