tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503771624520315711.post8443380935191957037..comments2023-09-06T01:53:41.634-07:00Comments on doug's Site: John Maynard Keynes and "The Stock Market as Beauty Contest"Doug's Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09219952832674415239noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503771624520315711.post-7859630105328027262011-01-18T14:32:06.000-08:002011-01-18T14:32:06.000-08:00Yes, AA, one need only look at how much private ou...Yes, AA, one need only look at how much private outsourcing of security and contracting goes on currently in war zones like Afghanistan to realize how much the public and the private are locked in a siamese grafting. He was right for his times, more right I believe than the American conservatives who recommended austerity in government as a tonic to the Depression. <br /><br /> <br /><br />I doubt Lord Keynes would have had much good to say about Reaganism; he believed in a society that allowed first and foremost for "full employment" and away from "the arbitrary and inequitable distributuin of wealth and income." <br />Perhaps he felt the profit motive couldn't be dismissed due to human nature, (and, in America at least, a wholesale fear of the very word "socialism"after Wordl War II, in name if not in deeds). <br /><br />Keynes was looking for a way to take the sharp edges off the free marketeers in Britian and America. In that sense one program can expect to stave off recurrances because selfishness and fear make for a potent combination from those corporate entitiies who have the money and men and women in suits to steer the general welfare toward the goal of "socialism for the rich."<br />Reagan's tax-cut mantra and our current "domestic policy by, of and for bond traders and investment bankers" bare witness to this return to a "Gilded Age". I had rather hoped these "good old days" were behind us. We appear to be in a histoical loop. <br /><br /><br />An excellent analysis on your part I'd say, AA. The war of 1973 in the Middle East, coupled withthe rise of the OPEC power bloc, did shake things up. Somehow, in a way I'm not sure of at this writing, it breathed new life in old-style 19th Century conservative formulas that disparaged "bleeding heart liberalism" in the USA in favor of good old Yankee xenophobia and dog-eat-dog Spenserism.doug noakeshttp://dnoakes.multiply.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503771624520315711.post-84752366069008110962011-01-18T13:55:08.000-08:002011-01-18T13:55:08.000-08:00I'd agree with that Doug, the problem is that ...I'd agree with that Doug, the problem is that Friedman and Hayek have changed the world beyond recognition.<br />Now Keynesian solutions are as outmoded as Marxist ones I think.....the state has been largely privatised and its functions have been outsourced.<br /><br />Keynes is the economist of big government within a mixed market economy and a form of social democracy that eventually gave rise to Reaganomics or Thatcherism because of its uncritical dismissal of the profit motive.<br /><br />On that latter point I think Keynes was naive and it was ultimately that refusal to accept that in a system where capital retains the upper hand it will behave against the interests of the populace when profits are threatened. It's not really rocket science but Keynes wanted a world where the western elite would generously disseminate the pickings of the world trade to a a content and docile domestic workforce and consumer base.<br /><br />All this was blown out of the water by the Yom Kipur War in October 1973 ...that is what sank Keynesianism I think.....and the end of the longest period of sustained economic growth in the history of planet Earth didn't really help much either!Aaran Aardvarkhttp://aaranaardvark.multiply.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503771624520315711.post-58700307844924072412011-01-17T07:16:11.000-08:002011-01-17T07:16:11.000-08:00There is a branch of American economics and polit...There is a branch of American economics and political operators who regard under-regulated "market" rationality as something akin to a natural law, Ian. And, as you say, after the damage is done it takes a long time and a lot of collateral human damage for these entities to return to balance. <br /><br /> And, yes, in an era of arcane and complex computer-generated trading schemes, the packaging and repackaging of toxic "securities" that can infect the global market, et al, the "social price" is too high.doug noakeshttp://dnoakes.multiply.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503771624520315711.post-54151169952163180212011-01-17T07:05:43.000-08:002011-01-17T07:05:43.000-08:00I have a heck of a time with economics myself, Jac...I have a heck of a time with economics myself, Jacquie. Suffice to say that when the speculative/financial sector gets to be too big a part of the economy and has too much power in the halls of our alledged Representatives, watch out America! doug noakeshttp://dnoakes.multiply.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503771624520315711.post-29028411267862898182011-01-17T02:48:32.000-08:002011-01-17T02:48:32.000-08:00absolutely - anyone that believes that markets wil...absolutely - anyone that believes that markets will always get it right is misguided. Even in a world of far greater market information/visibility than Keynes (or Friedman) could ever have imagined - the time it takes for a market to behave rationally carries too great a social price for my liking.Ian Evanshttp://ianevans2.multiply.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503771624520315711.post-6906768471753837192011-01-17T02:42:42.000-08:002011-01-17T02:42:42.000-08:00another new word for me Doug - thanksanother new word for me Doug - thanksIan Evanshttp://ianevans2.multiply.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503771624520315711.post-47550536489201637172011-01-16T20:17:27.000-08:002011-01-16T20:17:27.000-08:00I honestly have to say that I do NOT understand ec...I honestly have to say that I do NOT understand economics at all, but it does seem to me that people need to be working,and want to be working, to spend money. I'm really tired of "spculators" determing what we will pay for goods and services. I don't know what derivitives are, and I don't play the market because I don't understand it. Heck, I had trouble keeping a checkbook straight!Jacquie Howardhttp://lonelifebonded.multiply.comnoreply@blogger.com