Why Paul Krugman is wrong: Austrian Economics vs Keynesian Economics | Saifedean Ammous

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Saifedean Ammous is an Austrian economist and author of The Bitcoin Standard and The Fiat Standard.

PODCAST INFO:

SOCIAL:

[rafaelgomes]

“Imagine how much harder physics would be if electrons had feelings!” ~ Richard Feynman

[esser]

as a Venezuela who lives in Argentina. whenever someone says that things about the hijacking of the Economic studies by the propagandist i deeply feel it... in my heart, my stomach and my pocket

[pweddy]

"There is no central planning without coercion."

Best quote ever.

[aaronshearer]

"We don't know what the hell we're doing on basically anything, " as close to an absolute truth as you can get.

[erikkovacs]

Charlie Munger once said “show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome.” Governments have every incentive to push Keynesian economics because it justifies their growth and desire for ever increasing control of the economy. All the money and research goes there accordingly.

[adamliwinski]

The problem is modern economy has so much inertia and is so complex, you can get away with terrible policies and actually claim to be the saviour. The input and output are not connected directly. Output of the first order is also typically much different from that of the higher orders.

[Knowva]

Lex Friedman is the most balanced interviewer in this genre. I can’t think of another who is more reserved with his own opinions, but still demands his guests “show their work.” It’s an impressive display of humility.

[merrittorius]

I went to Indiana University and both my macro and micro profs did a good job of presenting a couple different perspectives. They started with scarcity and didn't advocate for printing to solve problems and focused on human behavior.

[Beginningtopeak]

My biggest problem with Keynesian economists is that they never advocate for their theories in good times. In good times interest rates are supposed to go up and the printing of money is supposed to stop. It never does.

[manuelviellieber]

This is the first video I've seen of Lex and I have to say he, as opposed to most interviewers, actually has a lot of critical questions and digs deeper to try and catch him off balance, but in a relaxed and intrigued way.

[wungabunga]

Would have liked to have heard his perspective on Breton Woods and regulation of monopolies.

[AB-oyon]

No serious debate can begin with my school of thought is the definitive: the first lesson in Economics is the existence of trade-offs and value judgements, in their totality, a set of value-judgements on what are acceptable tradeoffs (inflation vs growth) make up a school of thought.

[usnbostx]

It may be missed by some that when he says “inflation” he’s generally speaking not referring to price, but to money supply.

[crossfitbilly]

How amazing is this discussion!?! Having contrarian perspectives from people who are well versed in the dissenting opinion is probably the most valuable commodity that exists in the public square today. I sincerely hope that this type of dialogue continues and flourishes unencumbered. Lex, you are the best. I hope that I get to roll with you someday in Austin.

[daviddahan]

At ~37:00, Lex asks essentially 'is there any circumstance that government control is justified?'. Wouldn't the answer be 'Yes, to enforce contracts, ' which is the judicial branch being available for those who may be a victim of fraud because the other party didn't uphold their end of the contract?

[jonah]

24:10, I would ask, is it possible that using the level of aggregate spending in an economy as a lever to control unemployment and inflation can work, but govs/fed/bank have failed to properly utilize their rates? If the current US gov pulls off a soft landing, would that be reflective of Keynesian success? I guess even in that case they are still correcting their own mistake with previous over spending/printing...

[warhawk]

Glad to see people calling out central bank economic aggression.

[michaelcap]

After all, Krugman predicted 9 of the last 5 recessions.

[JohnSmith-ulce]

Around 8:00 some very great points on what money is/represents

[motogoa]

Very, very interesting series. Case well presented. More like this, please.