Which school of economic thought do you prefer?

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

isn't the Chicago school pretty much a variety of the Austrian?

What?  No, not at all, even though they often come to some of the same conclusions in support of minimal government interference.

I thought Hayek was instrumental in developing the Chicago school and the thought of people such as Milton Friedman?

While Hayek represented the moderate wing of the Austrian school, he still was unacceptable to the Chicago school. There's a reason why, when Hayek was invited to teach at the University of Chicago, it was with the Committee on Social Thought, not with the Chicago school of economics. There was a book I read a few years back called Vienna & Chicago which does a decent comparison of the two schools. The Austrian school is the true free market school, while Chicago is far less consistent and principled.

Anyway, though I have my disagreements, the Austrian school certainly makes the most sense among those listed here. Economics is not a science in the way that physics or chemistry are; it should not be treated as if it were.

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

Anyway, though I have my disagreements, the Austrian school certainly makes the most sense among those listed here.

How so?

The Austrian school approaches the issue of economics as it should; by actually taking into account human behavior. Building upon human behavior, it keeps things simple and axiomatic. Economics is not a natural science.

Unlike say, Keynesianism, the goal of which seems to be to deliberately over-complicate the field of economics to make clearly destructive policies appear beneficial.

I must say, I certainly don't sympathize with the Hamiltonian crony capitalism of the American school...

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

I don't think tariffs are crony capitalism necessarily. I do think subsidies are generally bad policy but I agree with government owning some banks, regulations against speculation (derivatives), infrastructure development, etc. The American School makes a lot more sense to me than the so-called 'free market' economics we have now.

Tariffs and subsides are both definitely crony capitalism. The State is punishing the population at large for the benefit of politically-connected big business.

Also I'm not quite sure how you can support both the American school and distributism at the same time. One is thoroughly Hamiltonian; the other, much more Jeffersonian. They're two diametrically-opposed visions for society.


Anyway I know that you know that what we have now is certainly not a real free market system.

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

Message from the moderator (ag):


Dear Libertas: my most profound apology: I accidentally deleted your post (pressed modify instead of quote: idiot me, the danger of being the moderator). I don't have the original text: if you still have it somewhere, please put it back. Otherwise, once again, my most sincere apology for being such an idiot.