Daniel Gros disputes Paul Krugman, Richard Layard, and others who insist that the U.S. and Europe are besieged by “savage austerity.” (HT Pete Boettke)
With brilliant brevity, Peter Lewin boils down the importance of Austrian capital theory as it relates to current economic woes. I especially like this passage:
Concerning capital: Ironically, Keynesians appear to assume a kind of “equilibrium always” story in which productive (human and physical) resources can, at low cost, be simply shifted to and plugged in to the production of whatever product or service happens to be the object of demand stimulus; and, further, that if enough of this is done, income, employment and tax-payments will rise precipitously.
Arnold Kling smartly identifies a behavioral quirk among enthusiasts for government intervention.
Back in July of 2000 I visited with a group of friends, including Tom Palmer, the Mayan ruins in Tikal, Guatemala. In the little hotel where we stayed were also a group of students from Harvard’s medical school. One of these aspiring physicians wore a Che Guevara t-shirt on two consecutive days. Able no longer to stand the chic ignorance, Tom Palmer asked the Che-admiring wannabe doctor the following: “Hey, do you have the entire collection? The Hitler t-shirt? The Stalin and Mao t-shirts?” The med student was too unfamiliar with reality to understand Tom’s criticism. That med student should look at this short video of Nat Hentoff.
