Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2013 13:15:33 -0800 From: Jim Devine Me: > This reminds me of Robert Solow's (alleged) quip about neoclassical > economics: "the wheel may be crooked, but it's the only game in town." But > still, lefty economists perservere in not doing neoclassical economics > nonetheless. > ^ CB: > The analogy of Democrats would better be to Keynesian economics. > > The Republicans are to Neo-classical as Democrats are to Keynesian economics. > > Keynesian economics is still capitalist economics and therefore a > crooked wheel , too, but not as crooked as Neo-classical.
Only a minority of Democrats (people like Krugman) are Keynesians; the majority -- represented, perhaps, by the White House under Clinton and then Obama -- embrace the Classical "balance the budget" mentality of the IMF _et al_. The GOP is officially "supply-sider" these days, but in practice that kind of policy implies using Keynesian deficits (using tax cuts, mostly for the rich) to stimulate demand. It's not a very efficient or ingenuous kind of Keynesianism, but it's Keynesian nonetheless. ^^^^^^^ CB: This gets a bit subtle , but, it's not Democrats _are_ Keynesians. It is an analogy that you started. You made an analogy between Democrats ( only game in town in politics) and Neoclassicals ( only game in town in economics). I changed the analogy to Democrats are to Republicans as Keynesians are to Neo-classicals. Both Democrats and Keynesians are crooked wheels for Marxists, but they are the only games in town in their respective areas. Actually isn't supply-side a form of Keynesianism ? What his name the Chicago school famous one said "We are all Keynesians , now" _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
