Geithner on TV – “Keynesian economics has failed”

zero hedge ^ | 7/10/11 | Bruce Krasting

[loveliberty2]

The following statement by Sir Winston Churchill, upon leaving office as Prime Minister in 1945, was prophetic for Great Britain, and as it turns out, the United States and the world:

"I do not believe in the power of the State to plan and enforce. No matter how numerous are the committees they set up or the ever-growing hordes of officials they employ or the severity of the punishments they inflict or threaten, they can't approach the high level of internal economic production achieved under free enterprise. Personal initiative, competitive selection, and profit motive corrected by failure and the infinite processes of good housekeeping and personal ingenuity, these constitute the life of a free society. It is this vital creative impulse that I deeply fear the doctrines and policies of the socialist government has destroyed. Nothing that they can plan and order and rush around enforcing will take its place. They have broken the main spring and until we get a new one, the watch wil not go. Set the people free. Get out of the way and let them make the best of themselves. I am sure that this policy of equalizing misery and organizing society--instead of allowing diligence, self-interest and ingenuity to produce abundance--has only to be prolonged to kill this British Island stone dead."

[Lancey Howard]

I haven’t lived that way but unfortunately I will pay for all those who lived with instant gratification. And I ain’t too happy about it.

If you're not happy about that, wait'll you hear about plans to "means test" social security. If you scrimped and saved and did without during your working life so that you could accumulate a nest egg and enjoy retirement, you will be hosed out of your social security so that the SS money is available for all the partiers who lived high on the hog and spent beyond their means and didn't save jack squat for their own retirement.

Yeah, that should go over big.

[FreeKeys]

Wow. Great references. Thanks for posting those.

[stormhill]

Abie Normal

[rcrngroup]

Good photo illustrating the totalitarian meglamaniac narcissistic commie pig 0dumb0! I hate the sonofabitch 0dumb0 more every time I see him, even in cartoon fashion.

[Gondring]

Amazing! At first I wasn't sure whether to read his quote as an admission of the failure of Keynesianism; but it is.

No, he's still not admitting it.

He's claiming that they are engineering artificially this recovery (still believing we're in a recovery), but they can't go faster. He still thinks we're recovering and that things woud be worse without them "helping" things.

[sheik yerbouty]

Strictly speaking, it’s not Keynsian economics; it’s Kenyan economics..

[allmendream]

Reagan said that he based the success of his economic policies on the fact that the media no longer called it “Reagonomics”.

[Right Wing Assault]

Why did they use quotation marks when those weren’t actually the words Timmy said?

[crusty old prospector]

6.2% of your annual income is taken without even a simple “thank you.” When you go to retire, if you get any back, it will be the same as if you would have put it in the bank in a savings account drawing 0.1% interest. But that money provided bogus jobs to countless bureaucrats across the countryside. With people living longer and the birthrate dropping (except amongst those who don’t pay into it,) it is the mother of all ponzi schemes.

[arrogantsob]

I am opposing misconceptions spread by people who never read his works. Do you have a particular issue which he ACTUALLY said or advocated?

For example, Keynes never advocated permanent deficit financing which is commonly attributed to him.

Someone posted a link to a video about Keynes vs. Hayek which was brilliant if not entirely accurate. Also at Youtube was an interview with Hayek where HE “defends” Keynes.