Wednesday, December 17, 2008

 

Rebunking Five "Lies" of Economists

They are trying to debunk the lies, so I am rebunking... Now I'm no fan of mainstream economic orthodoxy, but the critiques on this (spooky) page are childish. I must be brief--my corporate masters want output output output from me!!--but let me at least deal with two that jump out:
DELIBERATE LIE #3. People are “rational utility maximizers”.

Although even economists admit this is a lie, [7] it is still boilerplate economic theory. Economists MUST lie about this because if people are being manipulated by marketing, then the so-called “free market” obviously requires government intervention.

In a Liberal Democracy, tax payers are ultimately responsible for an individual if that individual becomes destitute or a criminal. Economists use the “rational utility maximizer” lie to prevent government intervention in markets when intervention would serve the common good.

The mistake here is so elementary that it's comical. If people are manipulated by advertising (and they certainly are to some extent), why in the heck would liberal democracy "work"? Wouldn't you get ridiculous (and "wasteful" in this site's horrified sense) political campaigns that appealed to the basest of passions? In short, wouldn't you end up with the lousy politicians we currently have?

This is the problem with any solution that relies on a benevolent government. E.g. if you think a country is horribly racist, then the last thing in the world you want to do is give the majority more power through the government. Duh.
DELIBERATE LIE #4. Money is just a “medium of exchange”.

Money is literally “created” (and backed by consumer debt) every time a bank makes a loan. At the time the loan is made, not enough money is in circulation to pay the interest on the loan, so more money must be eventually “created”, by more consumer debt, to pay back the interest on the loan.

I'm answering this one because I think someone in the comments here at Free Advice asked this a few weeks ago. Anyway, it is not true that if a bank makes a loan, then there necessarily needs to be further creation to allow for the interest repayment. This is partly because not every bit of money is due to a loan that must be paid back with interest to the bank, but more fundamentally the website is wrong because the same piece of money can change hands more than once during the year.

For example, let's say there are two neighbors, Bill and John. John asks Bill for a loan of $100, to be repaid with $110. Bill agrees, and gives John the money. John uses the $100 to buy materials, such as a canvas and paint, from Sally. Then John combines the materials to create a nice portrait, which he sells for $120 to Sally. Then John pays the $110 back to Bill, keeping $10 for himself. It is clear that what has happened is that a net $10 went from Sally's cash balance to Bill's, and another $10 went from Sally to John. Everybody is happier than without the voluntary transactions. The universe didn't blow up.

But let's really push it to see what's fundamentally wrong with the website's analysis. Suppose there are just two people, and Bill starts out with all the money. (This way we can't get the net interest payment by reducing someone else's cash holdings.) John asks to borrow $100. Bill says, "OK, but I charge 10% interest per month." John agrees.

Near the end of the first month, John makes his payment of $10. But then he cuts Bill's grass for $10. Thus John's cash balance is restored to $100.

John does this every month. When he decides to pay off the principal, he does the same thing: He pays the installment, then cuts Bill's lawn to get the $10 right back, and then hands over the $100 to pay off the loan. Once again, the universe does not blow up.

Last way to see it: Suppose we had a society with 100%-reserve banking on a gold standard, and the mines were empty. Would the nominal interest rate necessarily be 0% in this world?



Comments:
"Last way to see it: Suppose we had a society with 100%-reserve banking on a gold standard, and the mines were empty. Would the nominal interest rate necessarily be 0% in this world?"

I never thought of it that way before. That is a really good way to point out the fallacy. I came up with a story similar to your lawn mowing example to answer the question when it came up a while ago.

I think the argument that there is not enough money to pay off principal and interest sounds so simple and logical on it's surface that it's hard not to believe when you hear it. I know I fell for it when I first heard it. It took me a while before I realized that something was missing.
 
Thanks so much for writing this. I had some friends who watched that "Money as Debt" video, and I was finding it hard to concisely point out where the error was. You're answer goes straight to the point with some illuminating examples.
 
Bob, but Austrian theory DENIES that people are "Rational utility maximizers" in the sense of classical economic theory. OR are we suddenly embracing homo economicus after all?????

And, yes, people ARE influenced by advertising, and YES, that has serious implications for politics, and YES, that is also ONE of the reasons democracy stinks.

I don't quite understand where you are coming from here....
 
James, I don't think Bob was objecting to the original statement that people are not rational utility maximizers. He was objecting to the idea that this somehow means a government should be in place to correct our behavior.
 
I'm answering this one because I think someone in the comments here at Free Advice asked this a few weeks ago.

That was me! First, I should give credit to Bryan for explaining how this can work in those original comments.

Second, I think I've figured out the appeal of this fallacy. It is that we tend to think of the lender as stepping out of the economy once the loans are made. So let's pretend he steps in one day and introduces a new money that everyone wants to use. He loans out $1000 to various people and says "meet me back here next year to give me $1050."

Now if the lender hibernates for a year and interacts with no one, then it seems true that the community cannot pay him back because there is not enough money in existence. As Bryan and now Bob point out, this is not really the case so long as the lender enters the economy and pays for stuff during the year.

Another way to look at it is this: even if the lender did hibernate for a year, at the end of the year, people who still owe money might say to him "well, we still owe you money, but we do not have any to give. Perhaps you will accept this coat as payment instead?"

Or they might roll over the debt into a new loan :-)
 
Jacob: right.

James, Jacob's answer (for me) is correct. People can make mistakes and often pick what is not in their best interest, so how the heck this yields more power for the government is beyond me.
 
Bob,

now I get it. Ok, I simply missed the stupidity of their 'response'. I always thought the 'humans are too irrational to buy toothpaste without help' argument didn't quite mesh with the idea of democracy...:)

(Kirzner commented on that as well, and far more cleverly than I)
 
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