Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Shermaning Against Austerity


Krugman's anger is pretty great on this one:
Karl Smith, if I understand him, thinks that I should refrain from pointing out how foolish and destructive foolishly destructive ideas have been, and offer the proponents of these ideas a face-saving exit.

Chris Dillow, via Mark Thoma, explains why this is wrong. Dillow points out that Labour is responding with incredible lameness to the Cameron austerity agenda, even as this agenda fails, because it allowed Cameron to shift the Overton Window, so that only varying degrees of austerity are considered “responsible”.

I’m trying to shift that window back, both by relegitimizing Keynes and by delivering ridicule where ridicule is due. And I think I’m making progress.

PS: Karl first quotes Lincoln’s words about malice towards none, charity for all. Lovely words indeed. But the Second Inaugural was delivered after Sherman had laid waste to Georgia and South Carolina, ripping out the heart of the Confederate economy; Grant was about to be joined by Sheridan, who had just done the same to the Shenandoah Valley, giving him overwhelming superiority over Lee. If and when austerian ideology is in a state similar to that of Confederate war prospects in early 1865, I promise to be equally magnanimous.
A general Sherman style campaign against Austrian economics... I think that is something we can all get behind

1 comment:

  1. I have already received guns that can cast heavy and destructive shot as far as the heart of your city; also, I have for some days held and controlled every avenue by which your people and garrison can be supplied, and I am therefore justified in demanding the surrender of the city, and its dependent forts, and shall wait a reasonable time for your answer, before opening with heavy ordnance. Should you entertain the proposition, I am prepared to grant liberal terms to the inhabitants and garrison; but should I be forced to resort to assault, or the slower and surer process of starvation, I shall then feel justified in resorting to the harshest measures, and shall make little effort to restrain my army—burning to avenge the national wrong which they attach to your city and other large cities which have been so prominent in dragging our country into civil war.

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