Re: [Pen-l] Is Summers correct about this?

[Sandwichman <lumpoflabor@xxxxxxxxx>]

One recalls Keynes's comment about "madmen in authority, who hear
voices in the air..."

I am currently working on a piece tentatively titled, "Kook, cranks,
quacks and clowns."

In some respects, every world view is 'insane' to the extent that it
insists on the fundamental infallibility of its own mythology. And all
world view are based on a mythology. Confronted with the inevitable
disjunction between enduring objective reality and ephemeral
subjective experience, fundamentalists project the madness onto those
who don't share their preconceptions, thereby reconciling reality and
experience (at least in their own frenzied imaginations).

This is NOT to say that Summers himself is nuts. It is, rather, that
he has insulated himself from truth by constructing a bogeyman who
doesn't hear the same "voices in the air" that he hears (the "academic
scribblers from a few years back," by the way, would be folks like
E.D. Domar, R.F. Harrod, Robert Solow, etc.).

Thus, for Mr. Summers, THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE to "robust and
sustained economic expansion" even if he can't really explain what
economic growth is, other than an increase in a statistical index that
is itself subject to distortion by non-"national goal" related
elements.


On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 10:31 AM, Eugene Coyle <eugenecoyle@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Mr. Summers gave an overview of the stimulus bill and financial rescue, and
> he said that restarting growth was “our single most important priority.” He
> added: “Without robust and sustained economic expansion, we will not achieve
> any other national goal.”
> As quoted in the NYTimes 3/13/09
> Gene Coyle
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>



-- 
Sandwichman
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