Friedrich A. von Hayek

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Keynes and Hayek Rap Video

January 27, 2010 in Economics by Greg | 1 comment

This is a great little rap video parody featuring the government intervention policies promoted by Lord John Maynard Keynes versus the free market policies advocated by Friedrich A. von Hayek and Austrian Economics.

Created by Russell Roberts, Professor of Economics at George Mason University, and John Papola, an Executive Producer/Director at SpikeTV, the video features Billy Scafuri as “Grand Master” Keynes and Adam Lustick as F. A. Hayek (Billy and Adam).

In order to put this into some context, according to one writer:

As Hayek has shown, economic crises of boom and bust are created by governments that expand credit through central banks, creating unsustainable bubbles that ultimately crash. Unfortunately, based on Keynes’s theories, governments have foolishly then further intervened with bailouts and “stimulus” spending measures of pork and war that only prolong the recovery (e.g., Great Depression as well as the current economic malaise).1

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Lyrics:

We’ve been going back and forth for a century
[Keynes] I want to steer markets,
[Hayek] I want them set free
There’s a boom and bust cycle and good reason to fear it
[Hayek] Blame low interest rates.
[Keynes] No… it’s the animal spirits

[Keynes Sings:]

John Maynard Keynes, wrote the book on modern macro
The man you need when the economy’s off track, [whoa]
Depression, recession now your question’s in session
Have a seat and I’ll school you in one simple lesson

BOOM, 1929 the big crash
We didn’t bounce back—economy’s in the trash
Persistent unemployment, the result of sticky wages
Waiting for recovery? Seriously? That’s outrageous!

I had a real plan any fool can understand
The advice, real simple—boost aggregate demand!
C, I, G, all together gets to Y
Make sure the total’s growing, watch the economy fly

Continue reading Keynes and Hayek Rap Video »»

  1. Theroux, David. “‘Fear the Boom and Bust’: Hayek vs. Keynes Rap Video. 26 Jan 2010. The Independent Institute. 27 Jan 2010.↩

Collectivism

August 7, 2009 in Fascism by Greg | 2 comments

A comment to the post Health Care Collectivists reminded me that the rhetoric of collectivism permeates today’s political discourse and that as long as a collectivist solution isn’t too “extreme”, some believe that individual rights can be maintained. While this certainly seems like a reasonable approach, there are a number of problems with this philosophy besides the ever present danger of a populace giving heed to the seductive call of social “gradualists.”1

History of Collectivism

Tiananmen Square The Encyclopedia Britannica traces the modern history of collectivist ideas to Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Du contrat social – or “social contract” – of 1762.2 In theory, this was an actual or hypothetical compact, or agreement, between those who were ruled and their rulers, defining the rights and duties of each.

In the 19th century, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a prominent advocate of these ideals and believed that the state “has supreme right against the individual, whose supreme duty is to be a member of the State.”3 In fact, as a statist Hegel believed that submission to the state is the “highest embodiment of social morality.”

Drawing upon Rousseau and Hegel’s work, Karl Marx advocated a collectivist approach to organizing society. Moyra Grant wrote:

Collectivism is sometimes contrasted with both individualism and with statism to mean the advocacy of voluntary, cooperative and non-coercive groups and associations pursuing a common purpose; but is more commonly understood to include statist theories and systems such as fascism and Stalinism. . . .4

More broadly, however, collectivism embraces any philosophy which perceives any group, society or state as more important than the individual.5

Continue reading Collectivism »»

  1. See Proposition 8, Mormons, and the New Statesman.↩
  2. “Collectivism”. Encyclopedia Britannica. 6 August 2009.↩
  3. See Hegelian Dialectic.↩
  4. This post uses this more common definition of collectivism and presupposes familiarity with political collectivism.↩
  5. Grant, Moyra. Key Ideas in Politics. Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom: Nelson Thornes, 2003. 19-20. Google Book Search. Retrieved 6 August 2009.↩

Participatory Fascism

January 2, 2009 in Fascism by Greg | 18 comments

Participatory fascism is a phrase coined by Charlotte Twight. For most people, fascism in America is a difficult subject for a person to get their head around. Recently, I’ve been reading Crisis and Leviathan by Robert Higgs when Jimmy pointed me to his brief review of Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning.1 As I read his post, it reminded me of this passage in Higgs’ book2:

As critics decry the pervasive governmental intrusion in the economy as “socialistic”,” it clearly has not produced an economic order resembling any standard form of socialism.

Anarchism in Spain - Poster with Fascism Snake Has it instead produced “fascism”? The term unfortunately has been abused by Americans in at least two distinct ways. On the one hand, “fascist” serves merely as a loose term of opprobrium by which radical leftists characterize anything they dislike about the present political economy. On the other hand, and more commonly, it simply brings to mind the regimes of Mussolini and Hitler, which are generally considered to have nothing in common with the postwar economy of the United States. Indeed most Americans find the mere suggestion of such similarities offensive and repellent – did Americans not spill their blood to destroy the fascist regimes? – and refuse to consider seriously the possibility that the United States may be fascist in some respects.

The term fascism, however, has a definite meaning; and one may employ it as an analytical concept independent of distasteful historical examplars. As Charlotte Twight has shown, the essence of fascism is nationalistic collectivism, the affirmation that the “national interest” should take precedence over the rights of individuals. So deeply has the presumption of individual subservience to the state entered into the thinking of modern Americans that few people have noticed – and no doubt many would be offended by the suggestion – that fascism has colored countless declarations by public officials during the past fifty years. Unfortunately, as Friedrich Hayek noted during WW II, “many who think themselves infinitely superior to the aberrations of naziism, and sincerely hate all its manifestations, work at the same time for ideals whose realization would lead straight to the abhorred tyranny.”3

Continue reading Read the rest of this entry »

  1. Smith, Jimmy. “Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left”. 29 December 2008. Analytical Insights. 31 December 2008.↩
  2. Higgs, Robert. Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987. 240-242.↩
  3. Twight, Charlotte. America’s Emerging Fascist Economy. New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House, 1975. Chapter 1; Hayek, Friedrich A. The Road to Serfdom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944. 4.↩