Austrian economics is often derided as dumb and even dangerous. The Keynesians ask, "How can we be so stupid as to allow people to be driven by their animal spirits and succumb to the paradox of thrift, especially in time of economic downturns when so many will become unemployed?" They fail to question if those jobs are productive or whether those unemployed skills could be put to better use elsewhere; maybe we need more Ipods and fewer Walkmen. Maybe Solyndra just wasn't a good business model. But more fundamental than all of this is the failure of the Keynesians to remember one of the core axioms of economic theory across disciplines: that prices matter. Prices signal consumer preference and demand in relation to suppliers' willingness to provide. When governments control prices they distort at least the market involved with that particular controlled good if not several other related markets. But what happens when the price of money - interest - is controlled? Is this not an important price? Do the central banks not have incredible power to distort all markets?
What is the answer that justifies the initiation of force against us all?
No comments:
Post a Comment