Posted on 08/04/2009 1:45:12 PM PDT by parsifal
Mainstream economists dismiss the Austrians as cranks. Nobel economist Paul Samuelson wrote that "I tremble for the reputation of my subject" after reading the "exaggerated claims that used to be made in economics for the power of deduction and a priori reasoning [the Austrian methods]." (1) Noted economist Mark Blaug has called Austrian methodologies "so cranky and idiosyncratic that we can only wonder that they have been taken seriously by anyone Perhaps the defining difference between mainstream and Austrian economists lies in their opposing philosophies towards learning truth.
Mainstream scientists use a well-developed process called the scientific method. This method employs both data and theory. "Data" includes facts, evidence and statistics. "Theory" is the attempt to describe general laws, principles and causes and effects found in the data. Both form a cycle, as data goes into the formulation of theory, whose conclusions then engender more data collection in an attempt to confirm, refute or develop yet more theories. The accuracy of this process is verified by experimentation or prediction. Scientists believe they are on the right path when both theory and data agree; when they disagree, they know something is wrong. It could be the theory is wrong, or the data is badly collected or interpreted.
(Excerpt) Read more at huppi.com ...
http://www.thereisnoaustrianschoolofeconomics.blogspot.com/
Not all of the articles here pull up but most do. The links to articles follows the blog so just skip down the page some. The Professor at George Mason University has two articles which are very detailed but deserve a read. Kangas put it in English so I used him for the thread. Hey, even liberals can be right sometimes.
And for the kicker, guess who is the Chairman of the Von Mises org website? Answer: Lew Rockwell, Jr. .
Maybe this link will work better to the non-liberal site:
http://thereisnoaustrianschoolofeconomics.blogspot.com/
parsy.
I’m convinced. I’m a Keynesian now. Paul Krugman, be my guide.
I mean, Krugman got a Nobel Prize. Nothing like the appeal to authority to prove I’m right.
BTW: ALL: Bryan Caplan is the name of the Professor at George Mason.
No way you read the links that fast! You’re a cheater!
parsy.
mark
You’ll not convince me that Von Mises is a crank.
But you could probably convince me that Rockwell is one. You probably wouldn’t have to work that hard to do it.
economics vs. econometrics.
Yeah, that Keynesian stimulus and cash for clunkers will have us on to the road to prosperity before we know it.
Von Mises, were he alive today, would run circles around Krugman and all the academics who proclaim to be ‘economists’. Just because politicians took the easy (keynsian) way out every time the economy went south does not therefore prove theri theory. On the contrary, Von Mises would remind them of this quote he made a long time ago which is very relevant today.
“There is no means of avoiding the final collapse
of a boom brought about by credit (debt) expansion.
The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner
as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit (debt) expansion,
or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.”
One only need look at he housing collapse to see Von Mises was right. The US gov’t debt collapse soon to be upon us will only reinforce his theory. Would you rather have gold now or paper money?
Is it conservative to be Keynesian again? Already?
Even I don’t think von Mises was all wrong, or even a crank necessarily. I do find it interesting that Austrians use little or no data. And that they are dismissed by majority of economists, conservative and liberal.
I went to a lot of sites reading up on them before I posted this. Rothbard is really a koo-koo. Did you read his pro-abortion argument or his child rearing issues?
parsy.
Paper will be useful when the enviros have their way and that’s all there is left to burn for heat in the winter.
Have you read any of the works of Ludwig von Mises?
Conservative and Keynesian does not go together.
I don’t read Rothbard.
I do read Hayek and Von Mises and I find myself an admirer of both of them.
Its unfortunate that Rockwell has become the face of Von Mises.
I nominate Thomas Woods as the new face of Von Mises. I like him.
Good link! I’m not defending all economists in the world. And certainly not all the players, gov’t or private.
Let me link a few of the Professor’s articles to this thread.
This stuff is a long read. I know. I been doing it half a day or so before I posted this.
parsy
We saw the Road to Serfdom and said “Time for a road trip!”.
They’re talking about your people ping, my little Hayek.
Yes. I think I went thru the whole works twice at von mises.org.
parsy.
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