The Onion, Oops, Goldman Sachs Reports that 0% Interest Rates are “Way Too High”

The interest rate needs to be at negative 6% “to supply the needed amount of monetary stimulus.”

As a result, “we are entering a world with interest rates that are far too high for the economy’s good,” Goldman Chief U.S. Economist Jan Hatzius wrote in a Jan. 16 research note.

As this Business Week writer tells us:

Trends Can Change

Study of the past, it is assumed, discloses the shape of things to come. Any attempt to reverse or even to stop a trend is doomed to failure. Man must submit to the irresistible power of historical destiny. This doctrine is devoid of any logical or experimental verification. Historical trends do not necessarily go on forever.

The Political Chances of Genuine Liberalism

The main error of widespread pessimism is the belief that the destructionist ideas and policies of our age sprang from the proletarians and are a “revolt of the masses.” In fact, the masses — precisely because they are not creative and do not develop philosophies of their own — follow the leaders. The ideologies which produced all the mischief and catastrophes of our century are not an achievement of the mob. They are the feat of pseudoscholars and pseudointellectuals.

Economic Teaching at the Universities

The worst consequence of the proscription of sound economics is the fact that gifted young graduates shun the career of an academic economist. They do not want to be boycotted by universities, book reviewers, and publishing firms. True economists must be given the same opportunity in our faculties which only the advocates of socialism and interventionism enjoy today.

Hayek Meets the Press in 1975

Hayek from his historic 1975 interview on Meet the Press: “We mustn’t assume that all problems are solvable in the short period. There are problems that we cannot solve or which trying to solve them quickly may do more harm than good.... The present tendency would destroy capitalism inevitably. I think the important thing is that people are given a chance to change their minds, before it is irrevocably destroyed.”

Can Fiscal Stimulus Revive the US Economy?

Most economists believe that the US government must sharply increase its spending in order to arrest the economic crisis that could turn into a prolonged slump. They are wrong. The only way fiscal stimulus could “work” is if the flow of real savings (i.e., real funding) is large enough to support (i.e., fund) government activities while still permitting a positive rate of growth in the activities of the private sector.

To Which Defunct Economist Are You Currently Enslaved?

John Maynard Keynes once wrote that “the ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.”

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