Diplomacia e Relações Internacionais
Por acaso, Adam Smith e John Maynard Keynes nasceram no mesmo dia. Acho que é a única coisa que os aproxima...
Smith and Keynes Share a Birthday
by Don Boudreaux
Café Hayek, June 5, 2011
In what is surely one of history’s great ironies, today is the birthday of both Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes.
Smith launched the discipline of modern economics, freeing our thinking about economic matters largely from the misperceptions and prejudices of the ‘man in the street’ whose instincts prompt him to suppose that most economic problems are the result of too little money or too little demand – an instinct that, in Smith’s day, elevated mercantilism into the dominant mode of economic (non)thought. This ‘man in the street’ gives little, if any, thought to the enormously detailed and constantly occurring and largely unseen adjustments that property owners (including owners of only labor services) must make so that the plans and actions of producers and consumers are sufficiently well-coordinated across space and time that prosperity becomes widespread and continually growing. The ‘man in the street’ concentrates his worries on demand – e.g., Will consumers continue buying ‘enough’? Won’t labor-saving technology (including advances in international trade) cause sustained unemployment? What will be the jobs of the future if the familiar jobs of today are ‘destroyed’?
Keynes, regrettably, gave undeserved respect to these concerns of the ‘man in the street.’ The focus of Keynes and his followers was not on how the plans and actions of countless individuals can be reasonably well-enough coordinated, across space and time, so that scarce resources are ever-more-efficiently transformed into goods and services that satisfy consumers. Overlooking – as does the ‘man in the street’ – the importance of the details of this vastly complicated process of on-going coordination, Keynes and his disciples glommed on to what the ‘man in the street’ immediately thinks of as the economic question: is there enough demand to buy stuff? If yes, problem solved; if not, big problem – or, really, not so big if the state frees itself from the prejudices of those damned classical economists (such as Smith) and, adopting the idiot-savant genius of the ‘man in the street,’ augments inadequate private demand with demand that it creates either through money creation or, usually more effectively for Keynesians, through debt-funded fiscal spending.
Smith had no such delusion that economies grow simply because people demand more stuff. The abilities and drive of butchers, brewers, bakers, and other entrepreneurs to earn ever-better livings by ever-better satisfying consumers (as opposed to by securing monopoly privileges from government) is what makes economies grow. Competitively determined prices are important in guiding suppliers to meet consumer demands (and in guiding consumers on how to get the most satisfaction possible from their expenditures). Taxes, regulations, monopoly privileges, and (yes, even for Smith) inadequately supplied amounts and qualities of public goods obstruct the ability of markets to coordinate savings, investment, production, and consumption in ways that keep economies growing. Smith – and, to this day, Smithian economists – concentrate their attention on supply. The problem isn’t to get people to want to consume more of what they want; it’s to get people to produce more of what people want to consume.
John Maynard Keynes, more than any other person, diverted economics from its task of understanding how order emerges unplanned from the self-interested and knowledge-limited choices and actions of countless individuals. Far more than Marx, the consequence of Keynes on economics has been lamentable.
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Diplomacia e Relações Internacionais
Happy birthday Mr. Smith, happy birthday Mr. Keynes...
Por acaso, Adam Smith e John Maynard Keynes nasceram no mesmo dia. Acho que é a única coisa que os aproxima...
Smith and Keynes Share a Birthday
by Don Boudreaux
Café Hayek, June 5, 2011
In what is surely one of history’s great ironies, today is the birthday of both Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes.
Smith launched the discipline of modern economics, freeing our thinking about economic matters largely from the misperceptions and prejudices of the ‘man in the street’ whose instincts prompt him to suppose that most economic problems are the result of too little money or too little demand – an instinct that, in Smith’s day, elevated mercantilism into the dominant mode of economic (non)thought. This ‘man in the street’ gives little, if any, thought to the enormously detailed and constantly occurring and largely unseen adjustments that property owners (including owners of only labor services) must make so that the plans and actions of producers and consumers are sufficiently well-coordinated across space and time that prosperity becomes widespread and continually growing. The ‘man in the street’ concentrates his worries on demand – e.g., Will consumers continue buying ‘enough’? Won’t labor-saving technology (including advances in international trade) cause sustained unemployment? What will be the jobs of the future if the familiar jobs of today are ‘destroyed’?
Keynes, regrettably, gave undeserved respect to these concerns of the ‘man in the street.’ The focus of Keynes and his followers was not on how the plans and actions of countless individuals can be reasonably well-enough coordinated, across space and time, so that scarce resources are ever-more-efficiently transformed into goods and services that satisfy consumers. Overlooking – as does the ‘man in the street’ – the importance of the details of this vastly complicated process of on-going coordination, Keynes and his disciples glommed on to what the ‘man in the street’ immediately thinks of as the economic question: is there enough demand to buy stuff? If yes, problem solved; if not, big problem – or, really, not so big if the state frees itself from the prejudices of those damned classical economists (such as Smith) and, adopting the idiot-savant genius of the ‘man in the street,’ augments inadequate private demand with demand that it creates either through money creation or, usually more effectively for Keynesians, through debt-funded fiscal spending.
Smith had no such delusion that economies grow simply because people demand more stuff. The abilities and drive of butchers, brewers, bakers, and other entrepreneurs to earn ever-better livings by ever-better satisfying consumers (as opposed to by securing monopoly privileges from government) is what makes economies grow. Competitively determined prices are important in guiding suppliers to meet consumer demands (and in guiding consumers on how to get the most satisfaction possible from their expenditures). Taxes, regulations, monopoly privileges, and (yes, even for Smith) inadequately supplied amounts and qualities of public goods obstruct the ability of markets to coordinate savings, investment, production, and consumption in ways that keep economies growing. Smith – and, to this day, Smithian economists – concentrate their attention on supply. The problem isn’t to get people to want to consume more of what they want; it’s to get people to produce more of what people want to consume.
John Maynard Keynes, more than any other person, diverted economics from its task of understanding how order emerges unplanned from the self-interested and knowledge-limited choices and actions of countless individuals. Far more than Marx, the consequence of Keynes on economics has been lamentable.
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- Kyenes Vs Hayek, Ou Kayek Vs Keynes: Debate Na London School Of Economics
Alto nível, imperdível. Na provocação inicial o animador pergunta quem apóia Keynes ou quem apóia Hayek. Por incrível que pareça, Hayek venceu, pelo menos no entusiasmo dos estudantes presentes, o que eu acho inacreditável, mas talvez atribuível...
- Ainda Hayek, Desta Vez Contra Keynes (second Round)
Todo mundo (ou quase) já teve oportunidade de assistir ao primeiro embate entre Keynes e Hayek, um rap genial, já postado aqui, inclusive com excelente introdução do Instituto Mises do Brasil. Neste link: http://diplomatizzando.blogspot.com/2010/04/2105-keynes-vs-hayek-ou-vice-versa-um.html...
- Keynes, The Return Of The Master - Robert Skidelsky
Estou lendo, na verdade relendo, este livro de Robert Skidelsky, conhecido biógrafo de Keynes (em 3 volumes, depois resumido em um, para os preguiçosos), autor de diversos outros livros -- entre os quais eu aprecio particularmente The Road from Serfdom,...
- Somos Todos Keynesianos Agora? Eu Não (nunca Fui De Religioes...)
Brincando, OK. A influência de Keynes é inegável, e ainda descontando o fato de termos um numeroso bando de true believers, adoradores do semi-deus da macroeconomia, alguns até fundamentalistas, a maior parte dos economistas do chamado mainstream...
- Os Economistas Mais Relevantes Da Decada - The Economist
Free exchange - Economics Economics' most influential people by R.A. The Economist, February 1st 2011 WASHINGTON - AS THE world economy emerges from recession and great new questions and challenges appear, the economics profession has engaged in a...