From the stuff I have been reading lately (on the net) there seems to be a lot of people blaming the current crisis on the “failure of capitalism”, even though we haven’t really had free market capitalism since perhaps the 19th century. The US economy is more nationalized and government controlled now than ever.
It seems to me that the current crisis is a failure of Keynesian Economics, not capitalism.
Will anyone mainstream stop to think that perhaps it is a failure of Keynesianism? The Austrians have been pointing out their flaws for decades and had predicted this collapse while they were flying blind.
Do you think Obama or anyone on his adminstration ever read Rothbard’s “America’s Great Depression”? Seems to me they’re perfectly following Hoover’s foot steps.
What do you think?
I’m really having a hard time mentally dealing with the current “stimulus” and intervention plans in the face of the mountain of debt and dollar crisis we are facing. The only thing I can do is come to Mises and blow off steam with others that think like myself.
I’d say it’s more a failure of socialism than of Keynesianism.. The whole crisis stemed from the banking sector (which is a quasi socialist entitiy - in any event it’s certainly not anything to do with the free market).
Once you’ve got the problem (as we do now) the prescriptions for getting out of it will determine how bad it will be. The Keynesian solution will probably end in either a Japan or a Zimbabwe… An old school Volcker style solution might be the only monetarist way out of the problem (as per the 1980s - high interest rates to clean out the unprofitable economic activity). The only durable solution though would be the Austrian recommendation (i.e. getting government the hell out of the money markets - which will never happen because governments value the leverage that controlling money gives them to tax willy nilly without the consent of their voters much too highly to relinquish this control).
As such, what we’re likely to end up with is either Zimbabwe or Japan… for a while. The US can’t do a Japan rerun for long, becuase they have a massive trade deficit. Therefore eventually they will have to choose between Zimbabwe or Volcker… and I know which one I’d be choosing personally, if I happened to be USA inc. That said, the US was in much better shape in the early 80s than it is now - so maybe even a Volcker rerun is optimistic at this stage.
I don’t think any of them ever read any of the books on the Mises website. It’s possible that guys like Volcker read Mises’ essay on the impossibility of Socialism, but beyond that pretty much everyone in government and media (with the exception of Ron Paul and Peter Schiff) appear to be completely oblivious to the very accurate diagnosis and very real solutions proposed by the Austrian school.
Mises.org is great but, let’s be realistic, what percentage of the population in the US actually reads regularly? When they do read, what do they read primarily? I don’t think Mises.org is going to make it to the “mass market”. The only way I’ve managed to get my friends and family to read some of the material on this site is by buying it for them (and shipping it to them) - that way it’s kind of a gift and they feel obliged to read it… and I’m talking about people who are actually interested in the subject before receiving such a gift… that strategy certainly wouldn’t work with Joe Shmoe your neighbor.
Mises.org needs a holywood blockbuster in order to capture the attention of the average American. I’m working on it, but I don’t really have Peter Jackson’s creative talent or budget. The Austrian material is a little more difficult to turn into a script than Lord of the Rings as well [:P] Still, I don’t think it’s mission impossible - just mision very very difficult.
I will agree that we need to educate the public without inflicting effort on their part. I believe that movie “IOUSA” was an eye opener for many (I didn’t see it personally). Thankfully we have YouTube and it has been a success getting an easy message out to the masses. Peter Schiff has received much attention because of it.
We need to find attractive ways to utilize YouTube to popularly entertain while educating as to the true causes of economic crisis. Mises.org already has several videos on YouTube discussing gold money, Federal Reserve, etc.. but I don’t believe Joe the plumber is about to watch it. Most people seem to want to be led and put blind faith in their leaders.
I wrote a letter to Ron Paul this past week exactly on this topic. I’ve received no reply - I’m sure he’s busy these days. It is unfortunate that I believe the world believes the concept of reinstating gold as money (a stable money) and free market capitalism as something which is archaic and to be afraid of. Austrians push for such policies while the world public are now pushing for more gov’t regulation and socialism. Something that I am afraid of.