Sunday, April 7, 2013

The First Keynes and the Second?

"In truth, the gold standard is already a barbarous relic." -John Maynard Keynes, Monetary Reform (1924), p. 172












"You know what is becoming clear? BTC is better than gold." -Keynes look-alike Jeffrey Tucker

11 comments:

  1. You seriously need to drop it with the attack. No one else in the liberty movement is this bitter.

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    Replies
    1. Hah!!

      You obviously haven't heard what I heard Jeff Tucker say about Lew Rockwell. The real hate is coming from the Tucker-Kinsella camp.

      I think Wenzel is just having a little fun here. And that is a remarkable resemblance between Tucker and Keynes: hairline, chin line and lip line. Am I out of order calling for a DNA test?

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    2. C'mon Joe, what did Tucker say about Lew?

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  2. Yet, to be fair to [the first] Keynes, he did play a part at Bretton Woods in the re-creation of a sort of world gold standard, mediated through the US dollar. So the 'barbarous relic' actually had its appeal for him.

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  3. At this point in history, for many things it is better than gold. No question about it.

    You provided no context so it's impossible to tell whether what he said is nonsense or not. That can be done to anyone.

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  4. Not exactly a fan of bitcoin; but this is juvenile. Grow up RW (hereby forever known as an abbreviation for: Rancorous Wonk).

    Just for laughs though (and an attempt to turn this sad excuse of another personal attack into an enlightening exercise for yourself n' others), here are a few points of how Jeff Tucker isn't at all comparable to Keynes.

    [1] "Indeed, in the early 1930s, Keynes was widely ridiculed in the British press for his chameleon views. As Elizabeth Johnson writes, He was Keynes the India-rubber man: the Daily News and Chronicle of 16 March 1931, carried an article headed, "Economic Acrobatics of Mr. Keynes" - and illustrated it by a sketch of "A Remarkable Performance. Mr. John Maynard Keynes as the 'boneless man,' turns his back on himself and swallows a draught" (1978: p. 17).
    — Murray Rothbard, Keynes the Man

    = Jeffrey Tucker: principled, intellectually honest, with noticeable integrity. His views are consistent and as clear as day. It's almost like he's written numerous papers elucidating his views in a coherent, clear, and scholarly fashion... putting forward his positive position; unlike the OP.

    [2] "The young Keynes displayed no interest whatsoever in economics; his dominant interest was philosophy. In fact, he completed an undergraduate degree at Cambridge without taking a single economics course. Not only did he never take a degree in the subject, but the only economics course Keynes ever took was a single-term graduate course under Alfred Marshall."
    — Murray Rothbard, Keynes the Man

    = Jeffrey Tucker: studied economics as an undergraduate at Texas Tech University and Howard Payne University, where he first encountered the literature of the Austrian School. He later enrolled as a graduate student in economics at George Mason University. Followed by his decade+ promoting all number of economic texts at the LvMI.

    [3] "Keynes was scarcely a "revolutionary" in any real sense. He possessed the tactical wit to dress up ancient statist and inflationist fallacies with modern, pseudoscientific jargon, making them appear to be the latest findings of economic science. Keynes was thereby able to ride the tidal wave of statism and socialism, of managed and planning economies. Keynes eliminated economic theory's ancient role as spoilsport for inflationist and statist schemes, leading a new generation of economists on to academic power and to political pelf and privilege."
    — Murray Rothbard, Keynes the Man

    = Jeffrey Tucker: the status quo is JT's foe. If anything I'd say he could be considered over exuberant in this sense. My shaving experience has been revolutionized - to say the very least.

    [4] "Yet Keynes was much more than a Keynesian. Above all, he was the extraordinarily pernicious and malignant figure that we have examined in this chapter: a charming but power-driven statist Machiavelli, who embodied some of the most malevolent trends and institutions of the 20th century."
    — Murray Rothbard, Keynes the Man

    = Jeffrey Tucker: oozes class and charm, whereby I doubt he has a malevolent bone in his body. I mean - he certainly doesn't go around making inept comparisons of fellow travelers associating them with other evil economic and philosophical foes now - does he? He's way too good for that, unlike others.

    If one was to stack the credentials of work done to persuade others of the illegitimacy of Keynesianism - Jeffrey Tucker is near the top of the 'list'. I wonder, do you have Tall Poppy Syndrome RW? Also while you've taken it upon yourself to recommend a doppelganger for JT, I found yours a few days ago: https://mises.org/community/forums/p/33192/516550.aspx#516550

    The "debate" is already foregone enough without including this kind of neophyte commentary diluting it further. FYI: The Second Coming of Keynes has already been identified (http://mises.org/daily/3583), go aim your vitriol at someone who actually deserves it.

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  5. Yes, a Rothbardian anarchist who has done more to advance the ideas of Austrian Economics than anyone on the planet, save Lew Rockwell/RP, is the second coming of Keynes.

    If I didn't know better I would have assumed EPJ was hacked by someone who wanted to make you look as foolish, juvenile, and petty as possible by posting asinine crap like this. But, sadly, I listened to the debate and this seems quite consistent with your behavior.

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  6. Bob, I think you've gone over the edge on this one. This statement will come back to haunt you. Bitcoin IS better than gold.

    Bitcoin will continue to swallow every other currency because no other currency can compete - not even gold.

    Bitcoin is not in a bubble. It is in the process of a "hyper-monetization".

    See:
    Hyper-monetization: Questioning the "Bitcoin bubble" bubble
    http://freemarketincome.com/?p=1297

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  7. LOL. Got my laugh for the day,

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  8. Or perhaps JT is just a bit overly bullish, as most people are near a top.

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