'I began by arguing that there are three things we should learn from Keynes. The first was to take our social responsibilities seriously and focus on the macroproblems of our own day. Today's problem is the ongoing credit crisis and its gradually unfolding consequences. The second was to try to understand what can be done with it. Here I have argued that standard Keynesian policies are not the answer. Neither is the central banking doctrine that has dominated in recent years. Fortunately, Ben Bernanke and Mervyn King have shown that they realise that we must move beyond that doctrine. The third was to ask whether events proved that existing theory needed to be revised. On that issue, I conclude that dynamic stochastic general equilibrium theory has shown itself an intellectually bankrupt enterprise. But this does not mean that we should revert to the old Keynesian theory that preceded it (or adopt the New Keynesian theory that has tried to compete with it). What we need to learn from Keynes, instead, are these three lessons about how to view our responsibilities and how to approach our subject.'
- Axel Leijonhufvud, Keynes and the Crisis (
pdf) page 6
'..the fully predictable recent failure of the central economic planning agencies..''We wanted to expand a bit on a theme we have often discussed here, namely the fully predictable recent failure of the central economic planning agencies in the regulatory and nominally 'capitalist' democracies of the West.'
- Acting Man,
The Central Planners Fail, Plus A Chart Update, August 19th, 2011
'..Looking back at the West German economic policies of the 1950s, he lamented that free market reforms had not gone far enough.''He defended the free market from socialist cultural critics by pointing out that social crises and cultural decline are not the product of the free society; one needs to look to state control, political centralization, welfare, and inflation as a primary source of social decay. Röpke influenced the direction of post-war German economic reform, became a leading intellectual force in shaping the post-war American conservative movement, particularly its "fusionist" branch, and has been compared with Mises as an archetype of the individualist thinker.
Röpke was born on October 10, 1899, at Schwarmstedt in Hannover, Germany. He was the son of a physician who brought him up in the classical and Protestant Christian tradition. Serving in the Germany army during World War I, he was shocked by the sheer brutality of war, and it had a profound effect on his life. He became, in his words, "a fervent hater of war, of brutal and stupid national pride, of the greed for domination and of every collective outrage against ethics."
..
..To restore the broadest possible understanding of freedom, Röpke, along with Mises and F.A. Hayek, called an international meeting of historians, philosophers, economists, and journalists who shared his concern over the steady erosion of liberty, and in 1947 this group formed the Mont Pelerin Society.
Through the Society, Röpke was able to meet with and influence the thinking of Ludwig Erhard, economic minister and Chancellor of West Germany. Erhard later revealed that during World War II he was able to illegally obtain Röpke's books, which he "devoured like the desert the life-giving water." The product of Röpke's influence on Erhard has been tagged the post-WW II "German Economic Miracle," although Röpke pointed out that the economic success experienced by West Germany was not a miracle at all; it was the result of adopting correct social and legal institutions fostering the market economy. Looking back at the West German economic policies of the 1950s, he lamented that free market reforms had not gone far enough.
Röpke's early work outlined themes that would reoccur throughout his career: the curse of collectivism and scientism, and the central importance of moral and social institutions that sustain the free society..'
- Shawn Ritenour,
Biography of Wilhelm Röpke (1899-1966): Humane EconomistContext'..a truly stable financial and monetary system..'Economics of the Free Society