Rogoff always likes to portray himself
as an impartial academic. The truth, as is obvious to anyone with more than
three brain cells, is that he is into propaganda big time.
His latest piece of propaganda is an
article entitled “Europe’s lost Keynsians”. And the thrust of the article is that there
are loads of Keynsians (his favourite bête noir) advocating an end to austerity
in the Eurozone. He then goes on to explain that simple Keynsian type stimulus
won’t cure the Eurozone’s problems.
Well anyone with a modest grasp of
economics worked that out long ago!
Rogoff is of course quite right to point
to the numerous and vociferous calls for an end to austerity in the Eurozone.
But these calls ARE NOT COMEING FROM THOSE WITH A GRASP OF ECONOMICS.
They are coming from ordinary people,
trade unions and others with a relatively poor grasp of the subject. And no one
can blame them: unemployment is clearly a serious problem in the EZ.
So why is Rogoff trying to blame “Keynsians”
for a mistake made by people with little grasp of economics and who are quite
clearly not sophisticated Keynsians? Well it’s because Rogoff opposes Keynsian
policies in countries which are not “Eurozone type" countries: that’s countries
which issue their own currencies, like the US, Japan, UK etc.
So . . . pull the other one, Rogoff.
Or, to do Rogoff justice, perhaps he is
stupid rather than dishonest. Perhaps he really thinks his point about simple
Keynsian stimulus not being a cure for EZ problems is original.
_____________
P.S. 25th May, 2013. Looks like Paul Krugman takes as jaundiced a view of Rogoff's article as I do.
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