American Idol: John Maynard Keynes

Keynesian economics is a religion, fervently adhered to by its devotees despite its history of failure.

Obama's Keynesian spending orgy will not lead to prosperity. The most uneducated tea partier grasps this, whereas highly educated elitists have immunized themselves against basic universal truths such as gravity, and serfdom being the plight of the borrower.

Note that Keynes didn't invent the idea of government spending as economic stimulus, just like Marx didn't invent central banking. Keynes and Marx were just audacious enought to collate the theories and utopian dreams of others.

Marx called his compilation "scientific socialism" - not because it was scientific, but because he was sure the proletariat would act out his theories in the laboratory of history, and that he would be counted prescient rather than presumptuous.

Keynes gave an academic gloss to what central banks were already doing, disingenuously implementing central planning while claiming to promote free enterprise.

Of course the proletarians never rise up to validate Marx - they have to be coaxed by professional revolutionaries and community agitators, who in turn are financed by the ruling class who direct central planning.

It isn't pure Marxism or pure Capitalism. It's acquisition of power, and let the masses argue about whether the culprit is Capitalism or Socialism. George Soros and Barack Obama don't care - they are focused on expanding the power of the state.

The results of Marxist-Keynesian central planning have been:

*Removal of financial limitations when war is contemplated. Wars have become larger in scope, and more destructive, as states have financed their war efforts with the blood and sweat of future generations.

*Expansion of the welfare state, creating the illusion that Socialism and central planning lead to lasting prosperity for society. Disillusion regarding this myth is spreading throughout Europe presently.

*Bubble and bust economy. Central banks were suppose to prevent this, but instead have been a primary cause of it. The Great Depression started years after the Federal Reserve bank received its charter. Fed expansion of credit markets created false demands, which led to oversupplies, which led to market crashes.

* Instead of blaming central banks, Keynesians and Progressives blamed "capitalism" and lack of regulation. They are doing the same thing now. "Leading economists," - i.e. the ones in government and on TV - is a euphemism for government-approved economists. Economists of the Austrian School predicted the crash of '29 while "leading economists" were heralding an era of permanent prosperity.

*The free market doesn't coexist with central banking, except in name. Hence, when the bubble economy caused by the Fed bursts, it is counted as a failure of the free market. More regulation is called for. This is like setting a house (the free market) on fire (Fed credit expansion), blaming the house, and then calling for kerosene (more regulation) to be added.

When Harding took office, America was in a severe recession, which would have become a depression had he and Coolidge done what Hoover and FDR later did.



http://blog.conservativetoday.org/index.php/ConservativeToday/Economy/the-severe-recession-of-1920-the-forgott