DiLorenzo:
...it should be pointed out that Milton Friedman's famous book, Essays in Positive Economics, does not contain a single positivist essay. They are all normative essays imploring economists to adopt the Chicago School's cult of positivism as their methodology. It's a good bet that Friedman always equated "Chicago School" with nothing more than the methods of one Milton Friedman.Klein:
...note that Hayek returned the favor, saying this about Friedman's methodological views (Hayek on Hayek, p. 145):
Friedman has this magnificent expository power. He is on most things, general market problems, sound. I want him on my side. You know, one of the things I often have publicly said is that one of the things I most regret is not having returned to a criticism of Keynes's treatise, but it is as much true of not having criticized Milton's [Essays in] Positive Economics, which in a way is quite as dangerous a book.
Wikipedia presents insightul remarks on Positivism.
ReplyDeleteBecause of accepance of Positivism, and later because of acceptance of Milton Friedman's Free To Choose script, Nixon took the US off the gold standard, and the US Dollar became the reserve currency, and the Floating Currency System has governed till this year, when the US Dollar started to rise and world curencies, traded by the ETF, DBV, started to fall. These include the Japanese Yen, the Australian Dollar, and the Brazil Real. These have not fallen very much, but, the rise in the US Dollar, has stopped the global government debt trade, as is seen in World Treasuries, BWX, trading lower in value.
Gradually, Positivism gave rise to Creditism and Inflationism, Creeping Tyranny, specifically European Socialism, and Crony Capitalism, as well as to the rise of UK and US Global Hegemony.
But in April 2010, World Stocks, VT, and Commodities, DBC, traded lower on exhaustion of world central banks' monetary authority as well as contagion fears of the European Sovereign Debt Crisis and the Greek Sovereign Deb Crisis.
Global Economics is passing through an inflection point where Inflationism is turning to Destructionism.
Soon out of Financial Armageddon, that is a credit bust and global financial breakdown, fate, not any human action, operating through Creative Destruction, will bring forth Regional Global Governance to replace Capitalism, as foretold in bible prophecy of Revelation 13:3-4, and Daniel 2:31-33.
There will not be a return to Gilders, D-Marks or Drachmas, as such come by national sovereignty.
In Europe, Germany will arise as preeminent in a type of revived Roman Empire. Germany will be the leader in the New Europe, where a One Euro Government will rule polictically, monetarily and fiscally, and a One Euro Bank will rule financially.
Europe will be a gulag of debt servitude and regional statism, as Totalitarian Collectivism rules.
The dynamos of growth and profit that empowered Capitalism are winding down, and the dynamos of regional security, stability, and sustainability that empower Regional Global Government, are powering up.