Levine on the Keynesian Illusion

David Levine has a really dainty postal service on the Keynesian Illusion.

David Levine's analogy for Stimulus
Some large themes: Standard Keynesian economic science violates budget constraints. He explains it good , only it is certain to occasion the green venom from amongst the "Say's police clit fallacy" brigade that has a lot of problem agreement the divergence betwixt budget constraints in addition to equilibrium conditions.

David does a lot without equations. That broadens the appeal , only equations tin hand the sack endure useful. For example equations clarify that crucial divergence betwixt budget constraints in addition to equilibrium conditions. Equations tin hand the sack set to residue light-headed controversies. We mightiness non withal endure writing papers , books , in addition to weblog posts most what "Keynes actually meant ," eighty years afterwards the fact , or using "Say's law" equally rotten tomatoes , if Keynes had written roughly equations.  Cynically , perhaps the lesson is that lack of equations -- or fifty-fifty an equations appendix or citation -- keeps debate going in addition to your cite inwards the papers.

I too fearfulness that his lovely anecdote most people each of whom wants what others attain volition Pb readers a combat astray. Keynesian economic science is most lack of "demand ," mucilaginous prices non absent prices. It's non most absence of money , double coincidence of wants , in addition to and thus forth.

David goes beyond the green IS/LM formalism , to explicate roughly of the "coordination failure" interpretations of Keynes. He too references Axel  Leijonhufvud's "great in addition to famous work" describing a mismatch betwixt saving , a wish for generic futurity consumption , in addition to the need for specific goods that firms ask to invest.

He has a dainty personal even out of his Keynesian upbringing , which reminds me of my own. And
Knowledge of Keynesianism in addition to Keynesian models is fifty-fifty deeper for the cracking Nobel Prize winners who pioneered modern macroeconomics - a macroeconomics amongst people who purchase in addition to sell things , who salvage in addition to invest - Robert Lucas , Edward Prescott , in addition to Thomas Sargent amid others. They too grew upward amongst Keynesian theory equally orthodoxy - to a greater extent than in addition to thus than I. And nosotros rejected Keynesianism because it doesn't locomote non because of roughly aesthetic sense that the theory is insufficiently elegant.
The constant refrain that critics "don't know" Keynesian economic science is an ingorant (I hateful that non an insult , only inwards its literal pregnant , ignoring the facts) calumny. Sargent's start mass "Macroeconomic Theory" is a cracking example of a modern economists wrestling difficult amongst Keynes.

The final paragraph is a gem:
Keynes ain locomote consists of amusing anecdotes in addition to misleading stories. Keynesianism equally argued past times people such equally Paul Krugman in addition to Brad DeLong is a theory without people either rational or irrational , a theory of graphs pulled largely out of sparse air , a serial of predictions that are hopelessly incorrect - together amongst the vain promise that they tin hand the sack endure set correct if exclusively the curves inwards the graphs tin hand the sack endure twisted inwards the correct direction. As it happens nosotros accept developed much improve theories - theories that attain explicate many facts , theories that render sensible policy guidance , theories that locomote reasonably good , theories that are non an illusion. The electrical flow versions of these theories are really dissimilar caricature theories of hopelessly rational people who are all identical. Current theories are non perfect - only dissimilar the Keynesian theory of perpetual motion machines they explicate a cracking bargain in addition to accept a cracking bargain of truth to them. H5N1 working macroeconomist reading Krugman in addition to DeLong feels equally a doc would if the Surgeon General got upward in addition to said that the agency to cure cancer was to depict blood using leeches. 
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