Raising Keynes

With Obama and the media raising FDR and his New Deal as the archetype to be imitated to get us out of our current economic problems, those on the right have been turning to the work of people like author and Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow Amity Shlaes for counter arguments.

This apparently has been driving Paul Krugman crazy. Krugman, of course, is a Nobel prize winning Princeton professor. But, he's also an appropriately liberal New York Times Op-Ed columnist, who's earned as much notoriety for his constant vitriol at any and every thing the Bush Administration has done as for anything bordering on economics.

Many of those on the left have been ignorantly dismissing anything Shlaes has to say because she comes from the right. I'm tempted to do about the same with Krugman (or anyone who publishes a book that puts a Vice President of our country in a Hitler mustache) but I've come to the conclusion they are both worth taking the time to read.

Having two intelligent, well informed, individuals arguing over what we should do to fix our economic woes is a welcome development for the health of the country.

At the center of their debate is Keynesianism - the economic theory put forward by John Maynard Keynes, that, to quote Wikipeida, "the state can stimulate economic growth and improve stability in the private sector."

In any event, here are the links to the Shlaes v. Krugman debate so far, along with some additional links to outside commentary. It's my hope those crafting the Obama economic plans (and perhaps, in an attempt to be informed, the electorate, as well) are paying attention:

Shlaes v. Krugman

• 11/10, Paul Krugman - Franklin Delano Obama?
  


• 11/19, Amity Shlaes - Obama Will Take Us Backward By Channeling Keynes
  


• 11/19, Paul Krugman - Amity Shlaes strikes again
  


• 11/29, Amity Shlaes - The Krugman Recipe for Depression: Massive government spending is no solution to unemployment.
  


• 11/29, Paul Krugman - Changes in money-wages and Amity Shlaes
  

On the side lines

• 11/6, Eric Rauchway - Stop lying about Roosevelt’s record
  


• 11/29, Robert Stacy McCain - Amity Shlaes vs. Paul Krugman (which features, perhaps, the best write up of what makes capitalism work that I've read in recent history)
  


• 11/29, Don Boudreaux - Relative Price Adjustments and Aggregate Demand

Out of the fray, but on topic

• 3/20, Kim Phillips-Fein - Hard Times (a very critical review of Shlaes's book, The Forgotten Man).


• 11/21, Price Fishback - What Do the New Deal and World War II Tell Us About the Prospects for a Stimulus Package? (H/T, Cafe Hayek)
  


• 11/21, Tyler Cowen - The New Deal Didn’t Always Work, Either (H/T, Cafe Hayek)