Saturday, February 21, 2009
How the Government Dealt With Previous Recessions
This is a really neat idea by the New York Times. They got a few big guns to discuss the government's moves during previous recessions. Unfortunately, the three economists all cling to the Keynesian/monetarist view that government spending and money printing boost the economy, with the only downside being rising prices. (Somebody else, who claims to be an Austrian business cycle theorist, holds the exact same view apparently without realizing that his analysis is identical to that of mainstream, NYT-approved gurus.)
Comments:
Wenzel doesn't destroy Bob's argument, he's being more Austrian than Bob, actually. Bob is suggesting what the FED should do, while Wenzel talks about how the FED is the problem and shouldn't be doing bugger all. Considering Bob's an an-cap, this is mildly amusing. For a change, Bob is trying to be 'pragmatic' - rather than insisting on what's right as he usually does - and bam! Wenzel's got him.
That's the price for trying to tell robbers how to be more gentle with their victims, rather than telling them to take a hike.
There's only one economically sound mechanism for setting interest rates, and that's the market. Any guessing as to what the market price for anything would in absence of a free market for the good/service in question is futile.
Who knows - maybe the free market rate for credit right now would be .5% or maybe it's 50%. Maybe it's 10,000%, or maybe it's -5%. Nobody knows, nobody can even begin to estimate it.
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That's the price for trying to tell robbers how to be more gentle with their victims, rather than telling them to take a hike.
There's only one economically sound mechanism for setting interest rates, and that's the market. Any guessing as to what the market price for anything would in absence of a free market for the good/service in question is futile.
Who knows - maybe the free market rate for credit right now would be .5% or maybe it's 50%. Maybe it's 10,000%, or maybe it's -5%. Nobody knows, nobody can even begin to estimate it.
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: February 23, 2009 at 12:00 PM
: February 23, 2009 at 12:00 PM Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
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