Chris
12-24-2012, 01:47 PM
Perhaps the greatest modern champion of central economic planning was the twentieth-century English economist John Maynard Keynes. Keynes advocated the idea that the government should play a large, active role in the economy. Among the consequences of Keynes’ economic theories, whether intended or unintended, is the fact that Western economies today are characterized by large, central governments, central banks, and massive debts.
Government policies based on Keynesian theories and the institution of central banking form a nexus of central economic planning. Control of the central planning process is a winner-take-all proposition for businesses. In the U.S., the result is an unholy alliance of the U.S. federal government, the Federal Reserve (along with the largest U.S. banks), and the largest U.S. corporations. The logical chain beginning with Keynes’ fundamental idea that government, supported by a central bank, should play a large and active role in the economy sets the stage for a centrally planned economy and ultimately produces a corporate state.
The U.S. economy is locked in a downward spiral of economic decline. By growing in size, and by engaging in ever-larger economic interventions, the U.S. federal government became itself a material cause of the recession that began in 2007. By attempting to grow the economy through monetary expansion, the Federal Reserve destroyed savings and fueled a series of disastrous economic bubbles, culminating in the housing bubble.
Following Keynesian economic theories, the policy response of the U.S. federal government to the recession that began in 2007 and of the financial crisis that began in 2008 was to expand the government further and at a more rapid pace. In other words, some of the root causes of the economic imbalances that led to the recession and financial crisis (the relative size of the government and the resulting economic distortions) were compounded. As a consequence, the so-called “double dip recession” in the U.S. that began in the second half of 2011 will be longer and ultimately more severe than the economic downturn
of 2007–2009.
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In short it is big government that creates the means of crony capitalism.
This is not to say business doesn't take advantage and play a part in the collusion. But man, [url=http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1662&chapter=36963&layout=html&Itemid=27]according to Franz Oppenheimer (]The Keynesian Abyss[/url), has two means to achieve what he wants, the political and the economic. It's only natural that man will take the easiest means, that being the political means.
We can either try to regulate and re-engineer man into something he is not, or we can limit man's constitutional invention, government.
Government policies based on Keynesian theories and the institution of central banking form a nexus of central economic planning. Control of the central planning process is a winner-take-all proposition for businesses. In the U.S., the result is an unholy alliance of the U.S. federal government, the Federal Reserve (along with the largest U.S. banks), and the largest U.S. corporations. The logical chain beginning with Keynes’ fundamental idea that government, supported by a central bank, should play a large and active role in the economy sets the stage for a centrally planned economy and ultimately produces a corporate state.
The U.S. economy is locked in a downward spiral of economic decline. By growing in size, and by engaging in ever-larger economic interventions, the U.S. federal government became itself a material cause of the recession that began in 2007. By attempting to grow the economy through monetary expansion, the Federal Reserve destroyed savings and fueled a series of disastrous economic bubbles, culminating in the housing bubble.
Following Keynesian economic theories, the policy response of the U.S. federal government to the recession that began in 2007 and of the financial crisis that began in 2008 was to expand the government further and at a more rapid pace. In other words, some of the root causes of the economic imbalances that led to the recession and financial crisis (the relative size of the government and the resulting economic distortions) were compounded. As a consequence, the so-called “double dip recession” in the U.S. that began in the second half of 2011 will be longer and ultimately more severe than the economic downturn
of 2007–2009.
@
In short it is big government that creates the means of crony capitalism.
This is not to say business doesn't take advantage and play a part in the collusion. But man, [url=http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1662&chapter=36963&layout=html&Itemid=27]according to Franz Oppenheimer (]The Keynesian Abyss[/url), has two means to achieve what he wants, the political and the economic. It's only natural that man will take the easiest means, that being the political means.
We can either try to regulate and re-engineer man into something he is not, or we can limit man's constitutional invention, government.