It is high time that the Left dispensed with and put an end to the fashionable nonsense that is Postmodernism (or “Poststructuralism” as the French intellectual movement which gave rise to it was originally called).
I can, incidentally, speak on this subject from personal experience. When I was an undergraduate I learnt a lot of this Postmodernist nonsense myself, and encountered it frequently at university, but I had the great benefit of learning a considerable amount of analytic philosophy (an acid under which Postmodernism dissolves) and listening to, and reading, no-nonsense Leftists who always understood it for the idiocy that it was and still is.
This subject is relevant to economics, because there are some actual Post Keynesians who seem to think that they can adopt a serious “Postmodernist” methodology and epistemology as a foundation of Post Keynesian economics. This, in my view, is a terrible delusion.…The logical issue involved is criteria, a subject which underlies both meaning and truth as the necessary grounds for communication.
Social Democracy For The 21St Century: A Post Keynesian Perspective
The Left needs to abandon Postmodernism
Lord Keynes
See also
this is rich from Keen's thing at Forbes:
ReplyDeletea guy comments to Keen:
"I hope he’s on board with MMT [i prefer the term Modern Monetary mechanics-it’s not a theory..."
Keen replies:
"Yes he is, though I think he takes the MMT lead further than it has been developed by the MMT group itself..."
LOL!
Compare YV's empty BS metaphor "Global Minotaur" to Bill's concise post today....
ReplyDeleteI'll take Bill's analysis there over some POS mythical metaphor BS any day...
this is revealing from Keen:
ReplyDelete"Yanis’s formal qualifications in mathematics are an MSc in Mathematical Statistics from Birmingham University"
Statistics is not proper training for developing an understanding of functional systemic relationships... causation analysis etc...
You can do statistical analysis of phenoms that are not functionally related all day....
The elephant in the room whenever you mention MMT is floating exchange rates and the Job Guarantee
ReplyDeleteBy and large the classic Post Keynesians don't like them - preferring fixed exchange rates and income guarantees.
Regardless of the fact that the latter two have been shown not to work properly countless times.
If MMT is missing anything it is solid policy proposals for managing the floating rate market in the sovereign currency - along the lines a stock market like the NYSE is managed.
So it floats freely but with market controls to ensure a functional market.