Comments on: The Argument From Family History http://larison.org/2007/06/26/the-argument-from-family-history/ n. the principle of good order "Observe the strange inversion of all order and sense! Dignity debased; how vilely is the function of a consul prostituted!" ~The Craftsman Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:15:27 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 by: Grumpy Old Man http://larison.org/2007/06/26/the-argument-from-family-history/#comment-7106 Tue, 26 Jun 2007 17:16:43 +0000 http://larison.org/2007/06/26/the-argument-from-family-history/#comment-7106 My background is different. In my childhood, we once accompanied our grandmother to the shrine of SS Eleanor and Franklin at Hyde Park. I later learned, of course, that it was rearmament and the draft that got us out of the Depression by increasing demand and reducing the labor supply. Keynes in olive drab, so to speak. I learned from my exposure to the New York City Board of Education that government is rife with cant and incompetence. So is corporate America of course, but it's mitigated a bit by competition and the need to make a profit. My sometime adherence to the GOP is still regarded in my family at best as pixilation and at worst as apostasy. My background is different. In my childhood, we once accompanied our grandmother to the shrine of SS Eleanor and Franklin at Hyde Park.

I later learned, of course, that it was rearmament and the draft that got us out of the Depression by increasing demand and reducing the labor supply. Keynes in olive drab, so to speak.

I learned from my exposure to the New York City Board of Education that government is rife with cant and incompetence. So is corporate America of course, but it’s mitigated a bit by competition and the need to make a profit.

My sometime adherence to the GOP is still regarded in my family at best as pixilation and at worst as apostasy.

]]> by: M.Z. Forrest http://larison.org/2007/06/26/the-argument-from-family-history/#comment-7105 Tue, 26 Jun 2007 15:59:33 +0000 http://larison.org/2007/06/26/the-argument-from-family-history/#comment-7105 The reason you learned it in high school was because the neo-classicalists had to revise that period of history to give them relevence. It was accepted for near 30 years after the Great Depression that Classical Economics got us - and the world - into that mess. You even had Richard Nixon saying, "We are all Keynesians now," just to give an indication of how thoroughly classicalism had been rejected. The truth of the matter is that FDR didn't have a high opinion of Keynes - he found him boring - and he only implemented Keynes's proposals half heartedly and piecemeal. This implementation was precipated mostly by the dominance of the classicalism in economics thought at the time. It wasn't until the Second New Deal that Keynes had termendous influence. <i>Wall Street and the bankers will probably say, when the brief recovery comes, that it came of itself, and would have come more quickly had the government not interfered. They will use that argument as an excuse for going back to complete anarchy. But it is a false argument. The recovery in very large measure is a result of what the administration has done, and further government action is desirable to keep in existence the instrumentalities that have demonstrated their value.</i> http://newdeal.feri.org/misc/keynes1.htm The reason you learned it in high school was because the neo-classicalists had to revise that period of history to give them relevence. It was accepted for near 30 years after the Great Depression that Classical Economics got us - and the world - into that mess. You even had Richard Nixon saying, “We are all Keynesians now,” just to give an indication of how thoroughly classicalism had been rejected. The truth of the matter is that FDR didn’t have a high opinion of Keynes - he found him boring - and he only implemented Keynes’s proposals half heartedly and piecemeal. This implementation was precipated mostly by the dominance of the classicalism in economics thought at the time. It wasn’t until the Second New Deal that Keynes had termendous influence.

Wall Street and the bankers will probably say, when the brief recovery comes, that it came of itself, and would have come more quickly had the government not interfered. They will use that argument as an excuse for going back to complete anarchy. But it is a false argument. The recovery in very large measure is a result of what the administration has done, and further government action is desirable to keep in existence the instrumentalities that have demonstrated their value.
http://newdeal.feri.org/misc/keynes1.htm

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