tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post4803634581261096617..comments2024-03-28T07:50:06.102-04:00Comments on Mike Norman Economics: Yanis Varoufakis — Trump: The Next Keynesian President? Don’t Bank On It mike normanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03296006882513340747noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-67885225038028711572016-11-18T20:48:16.143-05:002016-11-18T20:48:16.143-05:00Bill Mitchell is imho not the best or most consist...Bill Mitchell is imho not the best or most consistent historian. More common sense and reading a book on historiography would help him. For a long long time he has said things like "The roots of MMT do not lie in Keynes" & much stronger critique. While frequently quoting Keynes himself and saying that MMT comes through Lerner - who attributed the main ideas of functional finance to Keynes - and Kalecki, who certainly recognized affinity with Keynes. Both were "deeper in insight than Keynes". In some places, but less deep in others. What a surprise.<br /><br />Better historians of ideas concentrate more on where some predecessor went right (i.e. agreed with the historian :-) ) than on captious criticisms of where they went wrong. Especially when it takes a lot of work and distortion, as in the affair of this "quotation" to convince oneself that they went wrong. Considering his criticism for being afraid of inflation <b>in WWII</b> - you would have to be insane not to be - Mitchell is a worse historian than I thought - to the point of allowing his animus against Keynes to distort his economic thinking. Calgacushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06031818010224747000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-37506616606597344832016-11-17T18:39:08.757-05:002016-11-17T18:39:08.757-05:00Keynes' view was nuanced but different from th...Keynes' view was nuanced but different from the MMT view according to Bill.<br /><br />Bill Mitchell, <a href="http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=31681" rel="nofollow">The roots of MMT do not lie in Keynes</a>Tom Hickeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08454222098667643650noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-22665654526289236902016-11-17T18:16:40.017-05:002016-11-17T18:16:40.017-05:00Unknown: Lots & lots of people say Keynes said...Unknown: Lots & lots of people say Keynes said that. Through constant repetition, most people believe he said it. But nobody has ever provided a genuine "deficit dove" / "balance budgets over the cycle" quotation from Keynes. <br /><br />Once in a long while, somebody gives an actual quotation that they think supports this statement. It is a good exercise in reading comprehension and in building economic understanding to be able to make the distinctions, which were clear to Keynes and everyone else at the time he wrote - between the meaning of the real quotes and the nonexistent balanced budgeteering "quote". <br /><br />IMHO, Varoufakis grossly underestimates "the room for using deficit spending to stabilize the economy".Calgacushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06031818010224747000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-18849267482745847482016-11-17T13:41:53.627-05:002016-11-17T13:41:53.627-05:00Unk, beat me to it...
In systems analysis you wou...Unk, beat me to it...<br /><br />In systems analysis you would re-set t=0 when the conditions change like that in order to track the new function...Matt Frankohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11978352335097260145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-33624951311444124662016-11-17T13:40:19.368-05:002016-11-17T13:40:19.368-05:00"Keynes was a deficit dove that recommended b..."Keynes was a deficit dove that recommended balancing the budget over the cycle,"<br /><br />Probably a good policy under gold...Matt Frankohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11978352335097260145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-38393784143260133152016-11-17T13:40:15.005-05:002016-11-17T13:40:15.005-05:00"In defense of Keynes, Varoufakis points out ..."In defense of Keynes, Varoufakis points out that Keynes was a deficit dove that recommended balancing the budget over the cycle, running deficits in bad time and surpluses in good times. This where MMT economists part company with Keynes."<br /><br />It should be noted, that Keynes was proposing this while working under a gold standard - you have to get off the gold standard for MMT to fully come into play.<br /><br />Here is Keynes celebrating the end of the gold standard in Britain - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1S9F3agsUA" rel="nofollow">Keynes celebrates the end of the Gold Standard</a> (rare video footage)Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07198667003900590106noreply@blogger.com