Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Lars P. Syll — Why some economists lie


Keeper Samuelson quote on the noble lie.

Lars P. Syll’s Blog
Why some economists lie
Lars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University

See also

The pretense-of-knowledge syndrome​

7 comments:

Andrew Anderson said...

Of course government-privileged banks, credit unions, etc. consume the price inflation space that might otherwise be used by the monetary sovereign via deficit spending for the general welfare.

Instead the government-privileged banks, credit unions, etc. function for the benefit of the rich and other so-called creditworthy - NOT for the general welfare but increasingly CONTRARY* to the general welfare.

*e.g. by financing automation to displace workers with what is, in essence, the public's credit but for private gain.

Konrad said...

I’ve seen the above quote before.

Let’s distill it…

Q. Why do some economists lie, and thereby help to cause ever-increasing poverty, inequality, and corruption?

A. Because if economists didn’t lie, we would have “out of control expenditure.”

Economists are saints. When they lie, they contribute to ever-increasing poverty, inequality, corruption, and despair. Without mass suffering, we would have “anarchistic chaos and inefficiency.”

For example, if we had Universal Medicare (like every other industrialized nation has), we would have “out of control expenditure.” Or, if we spent money on public works programs, instead of giving trillions to Wall Street and weapons makers, we would have “out of control expenditure.”

Let us be thankful for the “noble lie.” Let us be thankful that we are in hell, since being in hell is the only thing that keeps us from being in hell.

Konrad said...

@ Andrew Anderson:

All lies begin with lies we tell ourselves.

Put another way, our lies are the products of our delusions and dream worlds. They are products of our bullshit attempts to rationalize our greed, selfishness, resentment and fear.

Economists lie on behalf of oligarchs and neoliberalism. Economists know that if they speak too much truth, then in most cases they will be terminated.

Throughout the social “sciences,” truth is blasphemy. Truth tellers are heretics.

Andrew Anderson said...

Economists know that if they speak too much truth, then in most cases they will be terminated. Konrad


Ah yes, Paul Krugman's "Never touch the money system!"

Konrad said...

Krugman is a neoliberal elitist who calls himself a progressive. He has always opposed MMT.

EXAMPLE:

“I get the premise that modern governments able to issue fiat money can’t go bankrupt, never mind whether investors are willing to buy their bonds. And it sounds right if you look at it from a certain angle. But it isn’t. MMT people are just wrong in believing that the only question you need to ask about the budget deficit is whether it supplies the right amount of aggregate demand; financeability matters too, even with fiat money.”

https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/mmt-again/

This is the type of garbage he spews. Krugman had desperately hoped for a post to Hillary’s cabinet, but Hillary was not crowed.

Konrad said...

I meant to say that Hillary was not crowned.

Andrew Anderson said...

... financeability matters too, even with fiat money.” Paul Krugman

Krugman overlooks that the inherently risk-free debt of a monetary sovereign including bank reserves can, has and should command negative yields/interest.