tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6245381193993153721.post7526020827196995284..comments2024-03-28T17:08:15.784-07:00Comments on Social Democracy for the 21st Century: A Realist Alternative to the Modern Left: A New Post at Cynicus EconomicusLord Keyneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06556863604205200159noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6245381193993153721.post-90975684997024674002011-05-01T19:16:24.854-07:002011-05-01T19:16:24.854-07:00John,
Thanks for the links, and your comments, wh...John,<br /><br />Thanks for the links, and your comments, which I endorse.<br /><br />Also, Ha-Joon Chang has done some outstanding work on development economics.<br /><br />RegardsLord Keyneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06556863604205200159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6245381193993153721.post-20236514485723018892011-05-01T17:10:25.548-07:002011-05-01T17:10:25.548-07:00Why is it that you take this guy so seriously? He ...Why is it that you take this guy so seriously? He seems to systematically mistake the economy for a morality play.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6245381193993153721.post-60695519109643128372011-05-01T16:34:27.077-07:002011-05-01T16:34:27.077-07:00"Perhaps there are some who want to claim tha..."Perhaps there are some who want to claim that this is actually a vindication of their approach to economics."<br /><br />Well, Joana Gorjão Henriques wrote an article in "The Guardian" claiming that the high unemployment that is forcing many young Portuguese abroad is actually a good thing because it will make the Portuguese people less spoiled and more adventurous. <br /><br />I suppose the same arguments can be applied to the citizens of Latvia by neoliberals defending austerity. By the way, blogger Karl Naylor has a very good post on the Henriques article and on austerity in general at this link: http://karl-naylor.blogspot.com/2011/01/neoliberalism-in-practice-portugal.html<br /><br />What I find really interesting about the arguments for austerity is that they are often buttressed by shallow ethnic stereotypes. For example, the lazy Southern Europeans need austerity to make them more adventurous and individualistic, turning them from a bunch of coddled Mama’s boys into tough neoliberal pioneers! <br /><br />This strikes me as similar to the arguments used by neoliberals to explain away the failures of their policies in the developing world, for example, blaming the failure of neoliberal development models in Africa on the supposed culture of laziness there. But as Prof. Ha-Joon Chang points out, similar things were said about Germans, Japanese, and Koreans when they were living in developing societies. <br /><br />The neoliberals are strenuously trying to avoid any real discussion about their system and their ideology which is why they are utilizing “blame the victim” arguments.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6245381193993153721.post-79813996573920306962011-04-30T08:32:29.063-07:002011-04-30T08:32:29.063-07:00I remember that one Baltic government even had a c...I remember that one Baltic government even had a constitutional requirement to have a balanced budget. I believe it was either Lithuania or Latvia.<br /><br />Since it is constitutional, it can't overturn such a mandate without difficult, rigourous procedures.<br /><br />It seems Baltic governments in the post-Soviet were formed on radically fiscal conservative policies, that could not be altered by ordinary politics.Prateek Sanjaynoreply@blogger.com