The Folly of the Economist
September 3rd, 2010The AP that according to a survey by the National Association for Business Economics, ”economists,” despite the tumultuous economic storm we’re experiencing, and in stark contrast to the American people, are generally in support of the Federal Reserve. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise considering the vast majority of economists receive their education and training from state schools with heavy ties to the government, which lends to a high percentage of these graduates coming away with a strong sense that the Fed is actually a not-for-profit institution with the best interest of the economy at heart.
Yes, that’s really what they believe.
These poor economists, despite their intentions and intelligence, inadvertently end up becoming useful idiots for the Federal Reserve by proposing policy prescriptions that rotate around monetary policy.
Now, these Keynesian or Monetarist economists may disagree on what kind of policy the Federal Reserve should implement, but they are all generally on the same page: a central bank is a necessary condition for a stable, prosperous economy. This homogenous mindset of mainstream economists leads to a disastrous situation where the of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke on the stability of the housing sector are not only believed, but promoted and praised throughout the land.
Needless to say, we all know how those predictions played out.
The silver lining to our nation’s economic turmoil is that more and more economists are walking away from the Court of the Fed and looking to Austrian Economics for answers as to not only how money should work, but how human freedom and individual liberty are inextricably intertwined with a healthy, prosperous economy, and that directives from a central bank (or dictator, for that matter) cannot do anything but hurt our economic situation for our generation and our posterity.
We hope that our efforts to spread the word about the possible consequences of so-called modern monetary policy lead to more individuals shying away from the entrenched economic orthodoxy, and toward a more open-minded and forward-thinking economic philosophy like the one espoused by the Austrian school.
This is a guest blog post from Andrew Ward, freelance writer and Director of Operations at Campaign for Liberty. Contact if you’d like to contribute a blog article.
