Tag: Paul Krugman

Economics, failures of socialism, socialism September 22, 2015September 22, 2015

Keynesians don’t always spend your money…

Though when Keynesians do spend your money, kiss it all goodbye. Today’s post is dedicated to the glory of John Manyard Keynes’ economic beliefs. Once this capitalism thing is destroyed we will all be able to live in Utopia.

I know that I’ve already covered how People’s Economist Paul Krugman things that massive debt spending and war are good for the economy, but let’s cover that point from something other than his space alien invasion idea, shall we?

Here are some of Krugman’s thoughts about the effects 9/11 would have on the economy:

Nothing says economic prosperity like war, right? It’s as good as massive debt spending!

Then there’s this interesting tidbit from John Manyard Keynes himself as written in The Economic Consequences of Peace. This quote starts on page 235:

“Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the Capitalist System was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some. The sight of this arbitrary rearrangement of riches strikes not only at security, but at confidence in the equity of the existing distribution of wealth. Those to whom the system brings windfalls, beyond their deserts and even beyond their expectations or desires, become “profiteers,” who are the object of the hatred of the bourgeoisie, whom the inflationism has impoverished, not less than of the proletariat. As the inflation proceeds [236] and the real value of the currency fluctuates wildly from month to month, all permanent relations between debtors and creditors, which form the ultimate foundation of capitalism, become so utterly disordered as to be almost meaningless; and the process of wealth-getting degenerates into a gamble and a lottery.

Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.”

It’s amazing that the same man believed in massive state spending and other command economy methods of raising the aggregate demand.

Economics, European Union, Eurozone July 5, 2015

Greece said no to the E.U.

Well the Greek referendum is over with and the Greeks voted with a resounding no (61%) on accepting bailout terms. Plenty of European leaders may say that they believe in the Euro and want Greece to stay in the European Union. The opinion polls that showed the Greeks at a dead heat which each other appear to have been quite wrong. The Greek banks don’t exactly have a lot of cash anymore so the drachma will have to make a reappearance pretty soon.There are no laws written on how a member state would leave the E.U. so now might be a good time for the bureaucrats in Brussels to figure something out.

They're happy, but are they ready for what may come next? — They’re happy, but are they ready for what may come next?

The United Kingdom will be holding a referendum on E.U. membership by 2017. 260,000 Austrians signed a petition that will force the Austrian government to debate the topic of leaving the E.U. in parliament. The most recent E.U. elections went very well for Eurosceptic parties and the trend doesn’t seem to be bending towards those who believe in the Euro and the European Union as it currently stands.

Won't see these two flags next to each other for much longer. — Won’t see these two flags next to each other for much longer.

I don’t see how the Greeks can possibly maintain their current budgets and spending levels. I also don’t see how the people of Europe are willing to give up control of their currencies, much of their economies, and sovereignty to a body like the European Union. The intellectuals who believed and pushed for the Euro seemed to believe that a monetary union would bring political unification. Quite the opposite has happened though. Political differences and demands by different nations that don’t have a real Federal government or other institutions to bind them together are destroying the idea of European integration. Even space cadet Paul Krugman realizes that the Euro is a flawed idea.