"An economic school has led to gridlock in Washington"

[applegrove]

An economic school has led to gridlock in Washington

By E.J. Dionne Jr at the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ej-dionne-jr-an-economic-school-has-led-to-gridlock-in-washington/2014/02/09/12de8df0-9020-11e3-b46a-5a3d0d2130da_story.html?tid=pm_pop

"SNIP....................................



Hayek believed, Judt said, that “if you begin with welfare policies of any sort — directing individuals, taxing for social ends, engineering the outcomes of market relationships — you will end up with Hitler.”

But to the contrary, postwar initiatives along Keynesian lines are precisely what prevented both the resurgence of fascism and the collapse of Western Europe into communist hands. For that matter, Keynesian steps also kept the whole world from going into a much deeper and more disastrous slide after the financial crisis of 2008.

Yet today’s conservatives are in thrall to Austrian thinking, and this explains a lot of what is going on in Washington. Broadly popular measures such as raising the minimum wage and extending unemployment insurance — normal, bipartisan legislation during the Keynesian heyday — are blocked on the assumption that people are better off if the government simply keeps its mitts off the market.

It is now difficult for Congress to pass even the kind of spending that all sides once saw as necessary public investment in transportation, research and education. It’s that “road to serfdom” again: Anything government does beyond enforcing contracts and stopping violence is denounced as the first step of a fox trot toward dictatorship.





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[riderinthestorm]

1. Wow! I'd point that the U of Chicago "free market" economists

are our own "home grown" economic terrorists - led by Milton Friedman and friends.

We don't need to point overseas for our own set of disastrous economic policies.

[laundry_queen]

2. HUGE K&R

I say this as a business student (in Canada) - today's business schools are failing the American people. 'Trickle down' has been roundly disproven and is not even taught anymore in my school. Why is it still taught in the US? Better yet, why are the people in charge of the economy still using 30 year old discarded theories to make economic decisions. Government always has a role to play in the economy. This idiots are making everyone poorer - including the deluded 1%.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

5. Trickle down might be taught in economics--but not business schools.

As someone who went through undergrad business and MBA, I can say that's not their focus. It is, however, focused on maximizing profits with triple bottom line and corporate social responsibility given only cursory attention.

[laundry_queen]

6. Hm. Not at my school.

Mind you, my major is accounting (4th year, only electives left) and ethics and corporate responsibility are HUGE for accountants so we have spent a ton of time on those things in courses. They are a bit sensitive after Arthur Anderson, you see. But yeah, maybe my school is different. Learning about maximizing profits is always - ALWAYS - tempered with corporate responsibility. Again, I'm in Canada so, yeah, it's probably different.

Oh, and when I say it's 'not taught' I mean that it's taught as a failure. I learned all about it in every econ, international business and accounting theory class. It's not taught as a viable option for the economy here, is what I mean.

[rhett o rick]

3. Washington the DC. There is more than one Washington. nm

[Pretzel_Warrior]

4. It's their academic cover for greed and selfishness

Raise corporate income tax to 39% and get rid of corporate welfare. Fucking hypocrites. End corporate welfare and Cayman Island tax dodges.

[FreakinDJ]

7. They have no problem handing out welfare checks to Corporations