Comments on: What Went Wrong?

By: What Else Went Wrong at Steven Landsburg | The Big Questions: Tackling the Problems of Philosophy with Ideas from Mathematics, Economics, and Physics

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 07:03:05 +0000

[...] people at Big Think have posted their latest videos in the “What Went Wrong” series about the financial crisis; I am one of a consortium of bloggers who have been invited to [...]

By: Woods

Woods — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:50:40 +0000

Hello, I’m interested in fractional reserve banking and monetary policy leading to boom bust cycles and also a rapacious need to increase GDP. Are there any thought experiments in your book or good sources of discussion on this and the alternatives to fractional reserve banking elsewhere (for the non economist)? Thanks

By: Snorri Godhi

Snorri Godhi — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:44:32 +0000

I’m really not sure what left/right means when we’re talking about technical questions like the effectiveness of monetary policy.

The more I read about this issue, the less sure I am that left/right has ever meant anything; anything, that is, other than an opposition between two shifting, unprincipled, tactical coalitions. That was as true of the French Revolution as of the 2008 US presidential election.

Of course, political theorists, having nothing better to do, have tried to invest this division with some profound essentialist meaning. But the interesting fact is that, from the French Revolution to the 1930s, the “essence” of left/right that they identified was almost the opposite of the consensus view in the USA after ww2 (with modern Europe having an inconsistent mixture of the old European and new American definitions). At least, this is the conclusion to which I have been forced after reading part of The Lost Literature of Socialism by George Watson.

By: vimothy

vimothy — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:41:55 +0000

Dear CapitalistImperialistPig: no, the bloggers mentioned are not all on the right.

By: Steve Landsburg

Steve Landsburg — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 04:14:04 +0000

Dave: I am not an expert on Austrian Business Cycle theory and I am sure that some of the other bloggers on this list could give you more authoritative answers than I about that theory. There’s a lot I don’t understand about what caused this credit crunch, but I’ve written elsewhere about some of the things I think I *do* understand; you can find these if you Google around for my writings on the Atlantic, the Washington Post, the L.A. Times, etc.

By: Steve Landsburg

Steve Landsburg — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 04:12:00 +0000

CapitalistImperialistPig: No offense taken, really. But as far as your question goes, I’m not sure how to answer it, because I’m really not sure what left/right means when we’re talking about technical questions like the effectiveness of monetary policy. Surely there are vast differences among the people on the list; look at the links I gave to Sumner and Kling, for example.

By: Josh W.

Josh W. — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:19:03 +0000

It doesn’t make sense to categorize economists as right or left wing.

If you think Steven is wrong, try and prove him so. Name calling is highly juvenile.

By: RL

RL — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 06:03:09 +0000

When I read a list like that, I wonder how there can be 10% unemployment with so many new blogging jobs being created… :-)

By: CapitalistImperialistPig

CapitalistImperialistPig — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 05:10:23 +0000

Ummm. I didn’t actually intend to phrase that so offensively. My bad.

I meant that those I recognize all seem to be on the right.

By: CapitalistImperialistPig

CapitalistImperialistPig — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 02:03:23 +0000

I don’t recognize all the participants, but most of those I do seem to fit in the right wing-nut bag, like you. Is that a fair assessment?