Douglas Carswell's Blog

The Austrians are coming

The only forecast I made for 2012 is that Austrian economics would be much more mainstream by the end of the year than it was at the start. 

We're not yet mid way through January, and already the Financial Times' Gideon Rachman seems to be telling us that he’s feeling increasingly Austrian.  Bravo! 

The longer the financial crisis continues, the more apparent it becomes that faux Keynesianism and debauched Monetarism are only helping to prolong the problem.  Massive fiscal stimulus (in the US and Japan), and monetary stimulus (in the US, Japan and UK) have tested to destruction many economists’ claims to be able to engineer economic growth. 

Eventually even the BBC might start to notice that orthodox economics explains little about the mess we're in - and has solved almost nothing.  What then?

Time to listen to those who say trying to engineer the economy is what caused the problem in the first place. 

Alas, many "experts" hired to regurgitate the same old discredited script keep on regurgitating the same old script - and I don’t only refer to officials in the Treasury.  Take the British Chambers of Commerce as just one example.  Today, they are demanding "measures to improve the flow of credit to businesses ... and investment in infrastructure projects"
 
In other words, another fix of cheap, artificial credit, please.  And more stimulus spending, if you don't mind.
 
If such measures were the answer to the West's woes, we'd be booming.  Instead, it is precisely that kind of approach that has left us mired in debt and stagnating.

The swifter the Austrian ascendency, the better. 

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