Yesterday, 100,000 rioters clashed with police in Belgium over government austerity measures that will raise the pension age and reduce social services. These measures are, it was explained, “essential to keep the budget deficit within European Union constraints” (Belgian protesters clash with police over pensions and pay). This is utter nonsense and is yet another example of the confusion between money and wealth that is contributing to economic stagnation throughout the globe.
What we are witnessing is economic policy based on the fallacy of composition. The latter results when one assumes that what is true at the individual level translates to the whole.…Explaining Keynes without mentioning him.
Forbes | Pragmatic Economics
Belgian Riots And Confusing Money With Wealth
John T. Harvey | Professor of Economics, Texas Christian University
