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Edgy "economists" in dismay that /r/libertarian isn't worshiping artificially created inflation (np.reddit.com)

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[–]VassiliMikailovichYeltsin Ruined Capitalism 10 ポイント11 ポイント  (5子コメント)

Can't be bothered with the rest but

It's the same problem as Ancaps, Fascists, Austrians, and Marxists: when you're so far off the deep end and in such flippant opposition to almost all academic consensus and basic reality the only real mechanism you have left to justify your ideology is to pretend that everyone is wrong and deluded and that your particular flavour of crazy is the one and only [right] way forward.

I'll never get the "Austrians aren't mainstream, therefore they must be crazy people" argument.

You know what else was "academic consensus"? The Divine Right of Kings. We literally have thousands of years of scholars considering their current socioeconomic system to be the pinnacle of human development. That's because academics aren't disembodied balls of rationality, they're people with all the preconceived biases and notions that come with living in any era. The average economist is slightly right of centre because the average person is a centrist and most "consensus" economic views (things like "Rent controls are bad" and "free trade is good") are friendlier to conservatives than liberals. They're inherently going to interpret statistical data in ways that conform at least to some degree with their preconceived notions, and if they come across something that doesn't then they'll ignore it.

Acting like academia has somehow overcome the biases of existing in a specific time period is so comically shortsighted that I can already imagine the historians of 100 years from now talking about us.

"The people of the 21st century were so stupid that they thought that democratic welfare states were the end-all of political systems. They also thought they had figured out economics to the point of it being a science, despite the fact that they were so bad at predicting recessions that their top economists failed to see the largest recession in nearly a century coming until weeks after it had already started. Then they pointed at the people who actually predicted the recession years in advance and laughed at them for being 'heterodox'"

[–]staticjacketSomalia = Freedom 3 ポイント4 ポイント  (1子コメント)

The Divine Right of Kings.

Lol. People still quote Hobbes' social contract theory as an appeal to authority. "IF WE DIDNT HAVE THE STATE WE WOULD ALL WAR WITH ONE ANOTHER THO!" As if we are still feudal states in the modern developed world...

[–]ghettosorcerer 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I always find earnest pleas for socialism on the part of progressives somewhat endearing (we were all teenagers once). While it's still somewhat sickening in the context of the system's brutal failures, a part of me actually admires their seemingly boundless optimism. It'd be adorable, if it didn't strip people of their humanity on such a consistent basis.

...

That is until it comes time to address anarchism, when suddenly we need a centralized police state to prevent people from just violently murdering each other. Suddenly I'm the optimist, for having the apparently radical notion that the presence of the police preventing the formation of roving death squads of Mad Max villains, who execute people in the streets because it's how they get their kicks.

[–]viking_ 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (0子コメント)

There are plenty of ways to be a reasonable contrarian; pretending to be a caricature of Galileo isn't one of them.

Invoking the fact that experts in the past were wrong only indicates that experts may still be wrong (something most experts in the sciences would readily admit); it does not indicate that some particular competing group is any more likely to be right than the experts are.

Newtonian physics was (technically) wrong, but it wasn't some random crackpot who figured out relativity.

[–]VodkaHaze 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (1子コメント)

Then they pointed at the people who actually predicted the recession years in advance and laughed at them for being 'heterodox'"

You know, if you keep forecasting market crashes, you'll eventually be right. Broken clock and all

I'm looking at you, Zero Hedge.

[–]VassiliMikailovichYeltsin Ruined Capitalism 7 ポイント8 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Alternatively, if you predict the same economic crash well ahead of time but don't know when exactly it will happen, the fact that you called it well ahead of time is a strike against you.

Eg. Austrian Economist predicts housing bubble in 2002. No recession 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and most of 2007. Stupid Austrians, they can't get anything right! Then the bubble pops and the economy collapses. But see, those Austrians are still dumb because they predicted a recession in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 but there was only a recession in 2008 so they're 1/6. See the problem?

Alternatively, some Austrians and pseudo-Austrians have a tendency to assume ceteris paribus when making predictions. For example, Bob Murphy famously predicting hyperinflation as a result of QE. All other factors being held equal, a massive expansion of the monetary base is going to generate some serious inflation. However, they simultaneously began paying interest on excess reserves held at the Fed, encouraging banks to keep their money sitting at the Fed rather than lending it out. It isn't seriously disputed that removing the IOER would lead to some severe inflation.

Also, while I'll agree that Zero Hedge predicts a stock market collapse every month, I will say that the stocks I've bought on their recommendation have done ridiculously well so I can't complain too much.

[–]staticjacketSomalia = Freedom 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I just got done exchanging in PM's with the guy. I ended up getting to the point that the FED funds and enables the war state, to which he responds: "The FED doesn't send us to war and its built to help us stay out of all debt, they just deal with the problems caused by the heads of state but have no real power to prevent it. FED isn't to blame for wars, FED is to thank for making sure that we don't crash our economy because of them. Im against war too but when business money is the ones who are causing the wars perhaps its time to separate ourselves from those businesses and regulate them."

I then quoted A.C. Miller: "Good financiering cannot win a war, but modern
wars cannot be won without good finance" source

His response: "We can't fund it with the FED, thats why we are in so much debt. I like the bill that was proposed where you vote yes or no to a war and if you vote yes you get signed up to go fight"

Hah.

[–]Wardenclyffe56Fash Gordon 4 ポイント5 ポイント  (0子コメント)

They're surprised people in r/libertarian aren't acting like libertarians? This is a whole new level of stupid.

It'd be like going to r/communism, seeing the majority praise capitalism while a minority rejects it, and saying "well well well, looks like r/communism users can't believe the sub isn't circlejerking over communist ideals". Dumbasses.

[–]aerborneNull Pointer Exception 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I am guessing this user believes that the government I guess uses the federal reserve to fund it's spending, and just asks them to print money when they need it? This is "controversial" because it is incorrect. The federal reserve only buys securities on the open market at the market price.

So the federal reserve buys it from Goldman Sachs who buys it from the treasury, and he thinks that argument is an improvement?

That just makes it WORSE that the fed is buying treasuries.