Matt Yglesias

28 Responses to “Live from the Paul-dome”

1. David B. Says:
   September 2nd, 2008 at 3:23 pm

   Just don’t get them started on Zachertorte reform.

2. TH Says:
   September 2nd, 2008 at 3:25 pm

   I consider myself more knowledgeable than the average American with regard to both business cycles and Austrian culture, but you’ll have to explain.

3. Craig Says:
   September 2nd, 2008 at 3:28 pm

   LOL. Classic. I’m sure you’re having fun – sounds like it, at least.

4. Jose Padilla Says:
   September 2nd, 2008 at 3:29 pm

   The Austrian School of Economics. Ludwig von Mises. Believed that business cycles were caused by unwise credit practices. Hmmm, might be time to brush that one off.

5. Jeffrey Davis Says:
   September 2nd, 2008 at 3:49 pm

   Pretty soon they’re going to have to dig up Ronald Reagan.

6. stefan Says:
   September 2nd, 2008 at 4:05 pm

   Hey, I know what the Austrian Theory of the Business Cycle is as well as anyone — it isn’t totally clear there is a consensus formulation of the theory — and I even tried to program up a simulation when I was a teenager back in the early 1980s.

   And now I support Obama.

   Not clear Republicans can draw comfort from the Austrian Theory of the Business Cycle in any case…it sort of suggests regulating credit creation strictly is a good idea.

7. nick Says:
   September 2nd, 2008 at 4:07 pm

   Schum-pe-ter! Schum-pe-ter!

8. stefan Says:
   September 2nd, 2008 at 4:09 pm

   Short version of the Austrian Theory: excess credit creation distorts asset prices and these distorted asset prices then lead to excess investment in the wrong sectors, and this excess investment needs to be painfully unwound in the future. Fiscal and monetary stimulus doesn’t help much since the excess investment and capacity is in sectors that aren’t helped much by the stimulus, which goes in to sectors which didn’t get enough investment during the boom, raising prices. Think excess residential housing investment and underinvestment in energy infrastructure.

9. SMK Says:
   September 2nd, 2008 at 4:15 pm

   Have they started singing their favorite protest song, “Eve of Creative Destruction”?

10. Don Williams Says:
    September 2nd, 2008 at 4:19 pm

    Friedrich Hayek. Friedrich Hayek. He was a liberal , wasn’t he?

    Looking at George Bush’s Budget (especially the Federal Debt Tables buried deep in the Appendices) , I’d have to say that
    “The Road to Serfdom” hit the fucking nail on the head.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Hayek

11. nick Says:
    September 2nd, 2008 at 4:54 pm

    SMK wins the prize. we can all go home…

12. nick Says:
    September 2nd, 2008 at 4:57 pm

    But you tell me
    Over and over and over again, my friends
    Ah, you don’t believe, my friends,
    We’re on the eve, my friends
    of creative destruction.

13. daveNYC Says:
    September 2nd, 2008 at 5:00 pm

    Not clear Republicans can draw comfort from the Austrian Theory of the Business Cycle in any case…it sort of suggests regulating credit creation strictly is a good idea.

    They go the other direction. The libertarian Austrian types grab onto the theory as a reason to get rid of the Fed and let the free market regulate interest rates.

    Fed is the new black [helicopters].

14. Richard Steven Hack Says:
    September 2nd, 2008 at 6:27 pm

    No, the Fed was ALWAYS the black helicopters for the fringe right.

    Libertarians tend to follow the Austrian Economic school because Ayn Rand did. And it IS the only economic school I’m aware of – outside of the Chicago School of Milton Friedman (whose son, by the way, was an anarchist libertarian) – that deals directly with the problem of the boom-bust cycle being caused by money and credit manipulation.

    Matt, on the other hand, knows less about Austrian theory than he does the inside of his anus, since his head is usually up his butt on these pointless “libertarian” posts.

    I’ll say it again – Matt is just picking on Libertarians because they are fringe group with even less influence on US politics than he has (”he” considered as part of the “liberal Democrat” group).

    Like I said, that’s punk behavior.

15. Robert Says:
    September 3rd, 2008 at 4:49 am

    Clicking on my name reveals that Austrian Business Cycle theory is incorrect.

16. mike Says:
    September 3rd, 2008 at 9:39 am

    Clicking on my name reveals that Austrian Business Cycle theory is incorrect.

    Wow. If only all matters dealing with the social sciences were so easy to resolve.

17. Anarcho Says:
    September 4th, 2008 at 4:08 am

    Someone should point out that von Hayek was utterly defeated during the business cycle debates of the 1930s. Saffra and Kaldor refuted his arguments so successfully he basically gave up and turned to other fields.

    For a good overview of this debate see Michael Lawlor’s The Economics of Keynes in Historical Context. As he summarises, Hayek’s theory “was abandoned both by the economics profession and, more widely, on the intellectual and political scene of the 1930s, owing to its inherent shortcomings.” (p. 215)

    Some of the many problems with the Austrian theory are discussed here.

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