Tuesday, June 30, 2009

 

Austrians: Our Victory Is Complete, Part II

In an earlier post, I quoted Scott Sumner who (jokingly) said that ABCT had captured the hearts and minds of the intelligentsia. Today I impulsively followed a Google Ad (from my inbox, not from this blog, which would violate all sorts of contractual provisions) to this in-your-face site, which declares:
At the end of the day, we are not dependent on the wealthy. We are not dependent on the lawmakers, the banks, or the government to turn the tide. We are dependent on ourselves. We are the only ones who are going to save us from this "recession."
So already you can see the Austrian influence. Notice that they contrast "lawmakers" with "the government," showing that they are aware of Hayek's distinction between law and legislation.

Perhaps you are not convinced? Okay, check out this money quote: "Compared to the Great Depression of the 1920's, sometimes, it seems that little has changed."

Beautiful! They realize with the Austrians that it was the unsustainable credit expansion of the 1920s that was the true disaster. Other observers try to figure out what went wrong, starting with the 1929 crash, and then focusing on the 1930s. Not these guys. Bravo!



Comments:
Bob,

This website somehow reminds me of modern day university macroeconomic research-- take something that should be painfully obvious as common sense to everyone else, perform studies and mathematical regressions on it, then introduce conclusions as some kind of amazing breakthrough in science.

"Oh, no, uhhh, f-ck the recession? No, I enjoy my layoffs and deteriorating retirement savings. And I'd prefer to stay underwater on my mortgage to the point that I'll be paying off the negative amoritization for the rest of my life. Thank you very much, though."
 
If all they are doing is selling T-shirts, I dunno...
Meanwhile, the Market Ticker does a John Galt and suggests we Starve the Beast. In an earlier article, Denninger lambasts a know-nothing CNBC host and in the process gives a lesson in basic economics, including this gem: Recessions cannot end until the conditions that caused the recession are removed from the economy. This is elementary logic and obvious to anyone with an IQ larger than their shoe size. Go read the whole thing.
 
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