Keynesians

[Freedom 4 all]

What exactly are Keynesians? I keep hearing about them all over here. All I gather from this site is that a) they suck, b)they really really suck and c) the Keynesian Kenyan (Obama) sounds like really cool supervillain opposite Market Man (Paul). What exactly is Keynesian Economics? What is their philosophy/doctrine? I looked it up a bit and it all seems like mumbo jumbo to me. Does anyone have a simple explanation as to what exactly they believe?

 

[heavenlyboy34]

What exactly are Keynesians? I keep hearing about them all over here. All I gather from this site is that a) they suck, b)they really really suck and c) the Keynesian Kenyan (Obama) sounds like really cool supervillain opposite Market Man (Paul). What exactly is Keynesian Economics? What is their philosophy/doctrine? I looked it up a bit and it all seems like mumbo jumbo to me. Does anyone have a simple explanation as to what exactly they believe?

Google John Maynard Keynes. A "simple" explanation is rather difficult for me at this point in my studies.

 

[Live_Free_Or_Die]

nt

 

[brandon]

What exactly are Keynesians? I keep hearing about them all over here. All I gather from this site is that a) they suck, b)they really really suck and c) the Keynesian Kenyan (Obama) sounds like really cool supervillain opposite Market Man (Paul). What exactly is Keynesian Economics? What is their philosophy/doctrine? I looked it up a bit and it all seems like mumbo jumbo to me. Does anyone have a simple explanation as to what exactly they believe?

Keynsianism is a school of neoclassicial economic thought. The other two popular schools of neoclassical economic thought are the Austrian school (Championed by Mises, Ron Paul, etc) and the Chicago school (Championed my Milton Friedman).


In short, Keynsians favor demand side ideology. This means they think demand is the driving force in an economy.

They believe that free markets are often inefficient. They think the business cycle is a natural product of a free market, and needs to be "fixed" by the central bank and the government. Being that they favor demand as the driving force of an economy, they think that when people stop consuming and start saving money that it is a bad thing. To remedy this "problem", they think it is the role of the government to artificially create demand through a variety of programs, such as Obama's stimulus.

Most of their beliefs are totally debunked in "Economics in One Lesson" by Henry Hazlitt. Read this book.

 

[trey4sports]

Keynesians believe in deficit spending to get out of a recession. In fact the main plank of the idiotology is constant spending creates wealth. they totally deny the basic fact that gov't spending cant account for market interests as well as the malinvestment which is a consequence of such action

 

[Live_Free_Or_Die]

nt

 

[krazy kaju]

Just google "Keynesian economics." It is the doctrine that Say's law is obsolete, that booms and busts are caused by "animal spirits," and that the government can control "aggregate demand and supply" for the peoples' betterment.

 

[psalm82x3]

Keynsianism is a school of neoclassicial economic thought. .......
Most of their beliefs are totally debunked in "Economics in One Lesson" by Henry Hazlitt. Read this book.

As a student of the English language and as someone who often confronts the problem of brevity in explanation, I want to complement you on your concise and cogent response. Very well done.

 

[krazy kaju]

Keynesian economics and neoclassical economics are at complete odds. Neoclassical economics naturally leads to a more classical liberal political economy. Keynesian economists like Mankiw have provided new, non neoclassical, microfoundations for Keynesianism.

 

[SWATH]

The simple explanation is that they believe prosperity comes from the government hiring half of the people to dig a ditch, and the other half to fill it in again.

 

[trey4sports]

The simple explanation is that they believe prosperity comes from the government hiring half of the people to dig a ditch, and the other half to fill it in again.

sad but true

 

[SWATH]

sad but true

Straight from the horse mouth:

"To get out of this vicious economic cycle John Maynard Keynes (and others) proposed a counter cyclical (boom and bust) economic theory. Keynes asserted that governments in times of downturn should intervene in the economy to get it rolling again. Governments should stimulate demand through investments that hire workers, who will then be able to purchase products, which will further stimulate investments. Keynes, reportedly, even advocated that to get the economy going during a downturn government might as well pay workers to dig ditches and fill them in again, however socially inefficient this may seem."

 

[Freedom 4 all]

Free Market Facts:

A monopoly can not exist in a free market unless the company is providing the best service to the consumer.

A free market does not exist if there is not a zero cost to enter the market.

Threat of competition or competition are what motivates companies to provide the best service to the consumer.

If the threat of competition does not exist it is not a free market.

Example:
Can a poor person save up to buy an antenna and equipment, start broadcast tv video on any frequency, put some flyer's around town about his new channel, and start soliciting advertisers?

That same question can be applied to anyone who says the free market is the problem... as if anyone here has lived in a free market.

I know you did not ask about free markets but I wanted to throw my 2 cents in the thread....

Great post, the thing is though, that actually makes sense. Anyone with gray matter can understand the concept of how that works. That's why I was curious about the other side because I actually don't really understand how that works.

 

[Freedom 4 all]

Straight from the horse mouth:

"To get out of this vicious economic cycle John Maynard Keynes (and others) proposed a counter cyclical (boom and bust) economic theory. Keynes asserted that governments in times of downturn should intervene in the economy to get it rolling again. Governments should stimulate demand through investments that hire workers, who will then be able to purchase products, which will further stimulate investments. Keynes, reportedly, even advocated that to get the economy going during a downturn government might as well pay workers to dig ditches and fill them in again, however socially inefficient this may seem."

This may be a stupid question, but where does the money come from to hire people to do useless tasks? If the diggers don't produce anything of value, how does the gov afford to pay them for their "service."

 

[hugolp]

Keyness was an elitist with elistist friends that wrote an elistist theory to justify that the elits know whats better for the country and should take those decisions, and the elits liked so much, that decided to implement it.

Hugo

 

[Truth Warrior]

"There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose." -- John Maynard Keynes

 

[roho76]

Keynes focused on the short term. He wanted to cure an immediate problem regardeless of the long term consequences of the cure.

What's really messed up is meddling with the market is the problem. If they kept their hands out of it it wouldn't be a problem in the first place. Typical government. Create a problem then offer a solution that is worse than the problem.

I wrote this comment on digg about the 1.75 Trillion deficit:

"How is it that the most powerful people in the world get us into this mess and then the most powerful people in the world are left to the task of getting us out of it then the most powerful people in the world pass budgets that end up in the pockets of the most powerful people in the world?"

It really makes my brain hurt. Not the fact that I don't realize what their doing to our country but the fact that so many others do not.

 

[Truth Warrior]

Problem --> Reaction --> Solution. ( lather, rinse, repeat )

 

[Live_Free_Or_Die]

Great post, the thing is though, that actually makes sense. Anyone with gray matter can understand the concept of how that works. That's why I was curious about the other side because I actually don't really understand how that works.

Oh, I see a lot of people cite the free market as the problem. They say big companies lobbied for less regulation and look at where that got us.

They fail to understand there was not a free market to begin with...

 

[Truth Warrior]

Oh, I see a lot of people cite the free market as the problem. They say big companies lobbied for less regulation and look at where that got us.

They fail to understand there was not a free market to begin with...

Nope, just the centrally planned and executed ROAD TO SERFDOM.