printGlenn Beck “interviewed” these two Keynesian clowns, without so much as challenging them. Beck wanted to badly, but lacked the intellectual tools to counter their revival of Keynes’s anodyne “Animal Spirits” concept.
Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism, By George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller, is being studied and followed by Obama.
As is my habit, I preempted this issue some time ago in “Voodoo Child Talks Up A Storm”:
“The Economist’s A-Z of Economics quotes Keynes’ convoluted explanation of the concept of ‘animal spirits.’ I won’t; like his theorizing, Keynes’ writing is incoherent. (See for yourself.) So too is ‘Economics A-Z’ perplexed by Keynes’ whimsy: ‘Where these animal spirits come from is something of a mystery. Certainly, attempts by politicians and others to talk up confidence by making optimistic noises about economic prospects have rarely done much good.'”
“Because consumption is its be-all and end-all, consumer confidence is crucial to the Cult of Keynes. If the consumer is not crazy confident—even when he ought not to be—goes the ‘thinking,’ he’ll quit consuming until he drops. In short, our economic animists are hoping that the holy spirit of ‘confidence’ will enter the once bitten, twice shy lender, and make him lend. The same spell is supposed to mysteriously move the unemployed and penniless to spend.
I sincerely hope not.”
Had Glenn read the column, he might have had a bit of an angle. Is it my imagination, or is “Good Guy Glenn” becoming a lot like O’Reilly: guest are welcomed on so that he can talk at them/bounce his “ideas” off them, as they smile, nod and say stuff like, “Good question/you raise an important point.”
Someone hand this man a copy of “Economics in One Lesson”.