NationStates Jolt Archive

So basically, I'm curious as to how people view the American school of Economics, with all of its abundant theories that have developed over the past 80 years (Monetarism).

I personally tend towards monetarism economically, so I see them as a positive contribution to economic theory. Also, their ideas helped break stagflation in the early 80's, and that really helped the world economy rebound from the problems of the 1970's. They've really addressed many of the shortcomings of the Keynesian model.

poll needs joke option.

noted yet unfixable

What "American School of Economics" are you talking about?

What "American School of Economics" are you talking about?
Galbraith, obviously. :D

I think Milton Friedman was one of the greatest economists who ever lived, and certainly one of the big figures of the 20th century. He stood for what he felt was right, he worked hard on improving economic theory and he did it for all the right reasons. A lot of people who never heard his name owe a lot to him.

As for the economic theory specifically...it was an important contribution. Pure monetarism obviously doesn't work a lot better than any other sort of "pure" economic theory, and Friedman himself admitted that the evidence gathered later doesn't fully support his hypotheses.

But if I were to call myself close to any particular line of thought, I'd probably still mention the CSE at the top of the list.

Total monetarism is completelly lousy and I don't understand how people can like it. The best economy is a mixed economy because every economy needs state intervention to function.

Galbraith, obviously. :D

I think Milton Friedman was one of the greatest economists who ever lived, and certainly one of the big figures of the 20th century. He stood for what he felt was right, he worked hard on improving economic theory and he did it for all the right reasons. A lot of people who never heard his name owe a lot to him.
I agree. He made major contributions to dislocating Keynes from the centre of economic debate. Too bad the latter's devotees found a way to crawl back from the dead. For the time being I am a Hayekian Austrian (I say this because I might still be convinced to swing fully over to neo-Austrianism or the CSE, or remain an acolyte of Hayek's), so I see much of his work as valuable.

Total monetarism is completelly lousy and I don't understand how people can like it. The best economy is a mixed economy because every economy needs state intervention to function.
It seems Keynes isn't dead enough yet. Perhaps we ought to exhume his corpse and hang it too, much like they did to Cromwell. :)

For the time being I am a Hayekian Austrian (I say this because I might still be convinced to swing fully over to neo-Austrianism or the CSE, or remain an acolyte of Hayek's), so I see much of his work as valuable.

The Austri-whats now? Oh, you mean that School of economics that's been on life support for decades now. You know, the one that looks like a corpse. ;)

I have absolutely no idea what you people are talking about.

Eh, it could use some work, but I think the basic idea is right.

It seems Keynes isn't dead enough yet. Perhaps we ought to exhume his corpse and hang it too, much like they did to Cromwell. :)


Or we should just give his corpse the nobel prize :)

The Austri-whats now? Oh, you mean that School of economics that's been on life support for decades now. You know, the one that looks like a corpse. ;)
Merely because it is unpopular (whereas Keynesianism had the ASE, the CSE and the New Classicists put it to death, in spite of its rampant popularity at the time; mind you, I don't give a damn about popularity). Perhaps because it's strayed too far away from Hayek (http://opus.zbw-kiel.de/volltexte/2004/2218/pdf/04_3bw.pdf) (my personal favourite) to begin with (in terms of epistemology and method). That can be fixed though.