Saturday, October 1, 2011

Roubini Attacks Austrian Economists

Nouriel Roubini is very well connected in the world of the financial power elite, but that doesn't mean he knows his ass from his elbow when it comes to Austrian economics. He tweets:


The austerians' Austrian austerity will not lead to Schumpeterian "creative destruction" but rather " deadly destructive depression"
First of all, modern day Austrians see Schumpeter as a marginal player when it comes to the Austrian school of economics.

The most significant thinkers in Austrian economics are Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard and Friedrich Hayek. After these three, Carl Menger and Eugene von Bohm-Bawerk would be added to the list.

Second, there are no Austrian economists who would be in favor of the current austerity programs being called for in the PIIGS countries, by globalist organizations such as the IMF, World Bank and the OECD.

Austrians view the IMF etc. as bankster enforcers, who exist for one reason and one reason only, to ensure that the banksters are paid. Austrians view the current increased taxes, as part of austerity programs in PIIGS countries, with horror, and as the state taking by force from the people and handing the funds to the banksters.

Rather than banksters getting paid, Austrians would rather see the the PIIGS countries go into bankruptcy, default on their debt and free the people. The same view holds with regard to the Austrian position on US Treasury debt. Treasury default is the Austrian solution, not phony "austerity" programs of tax reform, aka tax increases, and government programs that are "paid for" by shuffling imaginary cuts in to later years. Bottom line: Austrians aren't in favor the current size of government, anywhere. It's not about austerity, but about eliminating the government money grab on behalf of banksters.

Austrians are also in favor of ending the social-welfare programs, so that the countries can again grow and prosper, but this has nothing to do with the current austerity programs proposed for the PIIGS. This is a position Austrians hold relative to all state social-welfare programs, regardless of the debt situation of a country.

Roubini is shockingly clueless with regard to Austrian economics and its position on the current eurozone crisis and the crisis in the United States.

12 comments:

  1. Mnmmm, Austrian economics for breakfast.

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  2. There are really only 3 ways to look at these central planners - oblivious, evil, or both.

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  3. Well, most significant Austrian thinkers should be, Carl Menger, Bohm-Bawerk, Knut Wicksell, Ludwig von Mises, young Frederick Hayek (Young because at that age when he was a young LSE prof he was penning down serious Austrian works like 'Prices and Production') and then ultimately everything coming together in Rothbard.

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  4. Roubini is absolutely correct, assuming he is referring to his buddies in the political class (particularly the banking establishment) as the locus of the “deadly destructive depression.” It depends upon context.

    While Austrian economics, as a non-normative science, takes no position on who should suffer the destruction, Austrians, especially those in the Rothbardian tradition, clearly would like to see the cancer of mega-banks and mega-states be quickly and thoroughly excised.

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  5. Nouriel is really ramping up the fear mongering. This was his next tweet:

    "Keynes said: in the long run we are all dead. But if we don't avoid a deadly destructive depression DDD we will all be dead in the short run"

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  6. Roubini is an apologist for banking class. He just assumes the bills have to be paid but he has no solution on how to pay them other then to rob wealth from other countries.

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  7. It seems non-Austrians have little recourse but to attack AE w/ weak/fallacious arguments. Their sacred cows are being led to slaughter by AE en masse.

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  8. The Keynesians are presenting a false choice. They believe the choice resides outside of time.

    So they say the choice is either "do something" (meaning the government "does something" and everyone else are ignored) and no depression, or "do nothing" (meaning the government "does nothing" and everyone else are still ignored) and depression.

    But all choices must take into account time. All choices, intentional or otherwise, contain a temporal implication. It seems only the Austrians, whom Roubini is attacking, understand this.

    Taking into account Austrian business cycle theory, the real choice is actually between "doing nothing" and lesser depression sooner, or "doing something" and greater depression later. Just like an alcoholic must make a similar choice when it comes to alcohol and sobriety, so too must people make this choice about the economy when it comes to inflation and correction.

    Roubini and his ilk are unaware of the dangerous and destructive path they want people to go down. Since their economic worldview does not accept time as a major, and perhaps the most important, foundation in economic science, they cannot help but be so fixated on the moment. So they recommend these awful short sighted band-aid solutions, which they want to believe is the moral and ethical thing to do.

    I don't doubt Roubini's intentions, but I do know that he is a mad doctor who doesn't know what he is doing. Roubini is the Dr. Murray of economic policy, only instead of being implicated in one person's destruction, he is using the state to inject millions with propofol.

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  9. He doesn't like the austrian because it would make people like him less relevant.

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  10. "Deadly Destructive Depression" = A hangover for the bankers and political classes. Far better to keep the liquor pouring, eh Roubini?

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  11. Looks like fellas like Roubini are being implicitly put into "good in heart but mistaken" bunch.

    Sorry, this is rather a group of intellectual whores (well, I shouldn't put whores in the same sentence with these scumbags - whores are more honest).

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  12. @Anon 1:04 PM,

    Thank you for not putting honest whores in with the dishonest ones.....it would have been very unkind of you to sleight the honest ones like that!

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