{"id":230,"date":"2008-12-24T10:09:56","date_gmt":"2008-12-24T17:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/xsml\/archives\/230"},"modified":"2008-12-24T10:09:56","modified_gmt":"2008-12-24T17:09:56","slug":"gold-is-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/2008\/12\/24\/gold-is-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"secular religions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ft.com\/cms\/s\/0\/be2dbf2c-d113-11dd-8cc3-000077b07658,Authorised=true.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2Fbe2dbf2c-d113-11dd-8cc3-000077b07658.html&#038;nclick_check=1\">Martin Wolf<\/a> via Paul Krugman:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The third and most important lesson is that one should not treat the economy as a morality tale. In the 1930s, two opposing ideological visions were on offer: the Austrian; and the socialist. The Austrians \u2013 Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich von Hayek \u2013 argued that a purging of the excesses of the 1920s was required. Socialists argued that socialism needed to replace failed capitalism, outright. These views were grounded in alternative secular religions: the former in the view that individual self-seeking behaviour guaranteed a stable economic order; the latter in the idea that the identical motivation could lead only to exploitation, instability and crisis.<\/p>\n<p>Keynes\u2019s genius \u2013 a very English one \u2013 was to insist we should approach an economic system not as a morality play but as a technical challenge. He wished to preserve as much liberty as possible, while recognising that the minimum state was unacceptable to a democratic society with an urbanised economy. He wished to preserve a market economy, without believing that laisser faire makes everything for the best in the best of all possible worlds.<\/p>\n<p>This same moralistic debate is with us, once again. Contemporary \u201cliquidationists\u201d insist that a collapse would lead to rebirth of a purified economy. Their leftwing opponents argue that the era of markets is over. And even I wish to see the punishment of financial alchemists who claimed that ever more debt turns economic lead into gold.<\/p>\n<p>Yet Keynes would have insisted that such approaches are foolish. Markets are neither infallible nor dispensable. They are indeed the underpinnings of a productive economy and individual freedom. But they can also go seriously awry and so must be managed with care.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Martin Wolf via Paul Krugman: The third and most important lesson is that one should not treat the economy as a morality tale. In the 1930s, two opposing ideological visions were on offer: the Austrian; and the socialist. The Austrians \u2013 Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich von Hayek \u2013 argued that a purging of the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}