Friday, June 08, 2012

For the Luddite/Krugmanite/Keynesian Bitter Clingers

Estonia.  Yes, there is such a place, and it's doing very well, thanks!

Why?

Because Estonia CUT GUMMINT SPENDING after the crash of '08.

Krugman selected his data and tried to show otherwise.  But the truth emerged.

Don't like Estonia as a model?

Then try Sweden.  They didn't raise taxes; they cut spending instead.  Worked there, too!!

9 comments:

J. Strupp said...

Estonia's economy collapsed by a whopping 25% in 2008-09. That's about the economic equivalent to a Tsunami wiping out the entire east coast of the U.S. You know, complete catastrophy.

Estonia's economy has moved up since then (still WELL below 2009 levels) but from what baseline? If you're starting from rubble, there's no question you'll get a bounce back from GDP. So Estonia has had a single digit bounce back in GDP growth coming off the worst collapse in the world and this is supposed to be the model we should all rally around? Nonsense. This is a conclusion in search of evidence.

Second, Estonia's growth prior to the financial crisis has no relevance to Krugman's commentary so I'm not sure why the author of your link calls the data reference "cherry picking". So Estonia was growing before it collapsed into a ball of crap in 2008. So was everyone else.

In short, instead of focusing on the 99% of countries throughout the world that are being torn apart (economically and socially) by austerity policies, the people who have been wrong about EVERYTHING since the 2008 crisis are focusing on one small country to try and prove a point.

Why anyone would listen to people who have been wrong about interest rates, inflation (or the lack thereof), and now austerity is beyond me. It's just dogma without any substance whatsoever.

J. Strupp said...

http://macromattersblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/estonias-monetary-policy.html

....and real GDP in Estonia has recently turned negative.

Jim said...

Excellent, J.

Anonymous said...

St. Ronnie was a Keynesian, and if Willard buys the election he'll embrace it too.

Estonia? Roughly the population of Newark. You need a better example ole boy.

J. Strupp said...

Reminds me of the "1921" argument that the Mises people cling to. Although they don't know what the he'll they're tralking about.

J. Strupp said...

Oof. Typos galore. Cell phone "autocorrect"

Dad29 said...

instead of focusing on the 99% of countries throughout the world that are being torn apart (economically and socially) by austerity policies

99% in "austerity"? Really??

And 'the people who have been wrong about EVERYTHING'...how in Hell would YOU know that?

Their remedy's not been tried, Struppster. Got empirical?

J. Strupp said...

Liquidate, liquidate, liquidate has been tried, Dadster.

Anonymous said...

Strupp and Jim, my, I missed your comments on the recall threads below. Anything to say about that? Were you blubbering on election night like the Sad Panda on CNN who sobbed that "democracy died tonight?" Many long faces on the East Side last week; to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, I would have had a heart of stone not to laugh. So, boyos, enjoy your snark now. You really won't be laughing in November. Cheers, sweeties!
Kate