David Stockman uses the most antagonistic rhetoric against Keynesians that I have ever read. He is merciless. He gives no quarter. That’s why I love to read his articles.
Here is a good one. It is on the world’s central bankers, who have driven down interest rates to zero, and have thereby sacrificed the interests of savers around the world. He calls them exactly what they are: ignorant government apparatchiks who have no experience whatsoever in the real world, nor do they understand basic economic theory. You can read it here. Here is a sample:
In the name of a crude Keynesian economic model that is an insult to even the slow-witted, Brainard and her ilk are conducting a rogue regime of financial repression, manipulation and unspeakable injustice that will destroy both political democracy and capitalist prosperity as we have known it. They are driving the economic lot of the planet into a black hole of deflation, mal-distribution and financial entropy.
The evil of it is vivified by an old man standing at any one of Starbucks’ 24,000 barista counters on any given morning. He can afford one cappuccino. He pays for it with the entire daily return from his savings account where he prudently stores his wealth.
After a working lifetime of thrift and frugality his certificates of deposit now total $250,000. Yes, the interest at 30 bps on a quarter million dollar nest egg buys a daily double shot of espresso and cup of milk foam.
What kind of crank economics contends that brutally punishing two of the great, historically-proven economic virtues—–thrift and prudence—is the key to economic growth and true wealth creation?
In this age of relentless consumption and 140 character tweets, what kind of insult to common sense argues that human nature is prone to save too much, defer gratification too long, shop too sparingly and consume too little?
Forget all of their mathematical economics and DSGE model regressions. Our 200 unelected rulers are enthrall to a dogma of debt that is so primitive that it’s just plain dumb.
He also added this:
These fools think this is owing to such nonsense as Brainard’s blather about “stresses in emerging markets including China” and that “slow growth in developed economies could spill over to the U.S…….(translating) into weaker exports, business investment, and manufacturing in the United States, slower progress on hitting the inflation target……etc.”
“Fools.” “Nonsense.” “Blather.” These people do not impress him.
Nobody should be impressed by them.
Stockman and I have never been in academia. Well, that’s not quite true. I did teach for one semester at an obscure private college in North Carolina. That was back in 1979. Never again!
Stockman and I are not beholden to any department chairman or any university president. We can use exactly the kind of rhetoric that we want, and the apparatchiks, tenured professors, and the rest of the crew that governs academia cannot impose any kind of negative sanctions on us. We are outside their reach.
A DOUBLE STANDARD
Academic etiquette has favored the political Left since at least 1946. Liberals, Marxists, and feminists can get away with rhetorical murder, but people on the Right are supposed to be restrained, gentlemanly, and members of the academic loyal opposition. This double standard has existed in American academic since at least the end of World War II.
(For the rest of my article, click the link.)
