Do you guys read anything Keynesian?

Economics Economics Questions
1

I’m not an economist. I only did one course in University. I only read Austrian Econ books. I find reading some of the stuff written by modern day economists or Keynesian based theory absurd. I feal like I’m reading fiction. I can hardly get through the entire article before I have to stop reading. It’s almost as bad as having to listen to the noise the pundits on CNBC or Bloomberg spew out (except for Schiff, Rogers or Faber).

Some of you guys who have econ degress are obviously well versed in mainstream economic theories. What’s your opinion of the books and other writings of keynesian economists (like say Krugman)? Are you able to dedicate yourself to follow through on their entire book? Or do you half way through just start to laugh and want to throw it in the trash? For those of us that have not read their books is there any real value in these books? I have Hazlitt’s The Failure of New Economics that I haven’t read yet. I’m sure that will be a good story. However, since I’m not well versed in Keynesian economics I will likely find it only reinforces what I know. Like the minister preaching to the choir.

Some of the things I hear from the mainstream economicsts (on the news or government) blows me away. I can’t believe they are actually saying the things they are saying… like… “we’re in for a deflationary depression” or “we need some inflation to help us out”.. or other tripe.

What do you read? What’s your opinion on mainstream economic writings? Are they worth their salt?

2

I’ve actually been looking for a good summary of both Keynesianism and monetarism (from authors of each school) so I can better understand the positions.

3

Garrison’s Time and Money would be the book.

4

For Keynsian writings I prefer any mainstream news website and Krugman’s NYT columns.

5

Yes, I was thinking about that since Huerta de Soto mentions it extensively in Money, Bank Credit and Economic Cycles.

6

keynes was a pioneer in the realm of making a humanities area of study imitate the hard sciences and thus gain a veneer of legitimacy to the uninformed. later in the 60’s the rest of the humanities followed suit and today papers on anthropology include mathematical symbols and made-up technical language that emulates the technical language of physics and chemistry.

7

Not to highjack the thread, but how easy is it to grasp Time and Money’s concepts? I’ve been thinking of getting it for some time.

8

It’s clear enough so that a layman could read it, though it’s not light reading.