Day: June 14, 2010

Which way the road serfdom? Does the book belong in a class on planning theory?

Lisa Schweitzer7 Comments

Greg Mankiw’s notes the cause and effect of Fox News on book sales of Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom. This does a nice job of illustrating the enormous power of the conservative punditry, the poor disenfranchised dears, which allows them on occasion (read constantly) to get their views out there despite the overwhelming (read nonexistent) liberal bias in the media. As usual, Mankiw accomplishes more in 31 words than I do in volumes.

Nonetheless, The Road to Serfdom is a significant and socially important book. Does it belong on my syllabus for planning theory?


Kirshner on post-Keynesian Keynesians

Lisa Schweitzer

Jon Kirshner wrote an excellent review of three new books on Keynes for the Boston Review:

link: Boston Review — Jonathan Kirshner: Keynes, Recovered

A good quote on whether Keynes would have been able to wrap his mind around the expansion that predated this recession:

But in the mania of the American housing bubble, the chase of wealth became everything. The financial sector expanded, national savings rates plunged, and Clinton-era deregulations were followed by the Bush administration’s abdication of government oversight. Financiers eagerly accepted the open invitation to recklessness and enjoyed astronomical compensation packages for embracing imprudent risks. Borrowers took on debt far beyond any responsible expectation of what they could repay. In retrospect even Alan Greenspan finally understood the errors of the era of unregulated finance he championed.