Links on Brad DeLong on ‘Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the Capitalist System was to debauch the currency.’
Blog-Reference
Keynes not only cited Lenin approvingly on the well-known destructive effects of inflation but remarked on another occasion: “You have not, I suppose, ever mixed with politicians at close quarters. They are awful … their stupidity is inhuman …”
Keynes, obviously, was unaware of the inhumane stupidity of economists, including his own.
Here is the proof from the General Theory: “Income = value of output = consumption + investment. Saving = income − consumption. Therefore saving = investment.” (p. 63)
This syllogism is conceptually and logically defective because Keynes NEVER came to grips with profit: “His Collected Writings show that he wrestled to solve the Profit Puzzle up till the semi-final versions of his GT but in the end he gave up and discarded the draft chapter dealing with it.” (Tómasson et al.)
Because the foundational economic concept of macroeconomic profit is ill-defined the whole theoretical superstructure of Keynesianism is false. So, Keynesian policy guidance never has had sound scientific foundations. This is bad enough but the proof of the inhumane stupidity of economists is that they have NOT spotted Keynes’ lethal blunder to this day. Although I=S has always been false (Q≡I−S is correct) loudspeakers of the profession like Paul Krugman still apply IS-LM models. This is the smoking-gun proof that economists are too stupid for the elementary algebra that underlies macroeconomics.
The best way to destroy the Capitalist System is to employ economists: “Late in life, …, he [Napoleon] claimed that he had always believed that if an empire were made of granite the ideas of economists if listened to, would suffice to reduce it to dust.” (Viner)
For details see
► How Keynes got macro wrong and Allais got it right
► Keynesianism as ultimate profit machine
► Keynes, Lerner, MMT, Trump, etc. and exploding profit
► Keynes ― the poster boy for the weakness of the economist’s mind
► and cross-references Keynesianism.
Egmont Kakarot-Handtke
