Lars P. Syll

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Why some economists lie I think there is an element of truth in the view that the superstition that the budget must be balanced at all times [is necessary]. Once it is debunked, [it] takes away one of the bulwarks that every society must have against expenditure out of control. There must be discipline in the allocation of resources or you will have anarchistic chaos and inefficiency. And one of the functions of old fashioned religion was to scare people by...

Marx und das Ende der Megamaschine  [embedded content] Advertisements

Many mainstream economists have the idea that because heterodox people — like yours truly — often criticize the application of mathematics in economics, we are critical of math per se. This is totally unfounded and ridiculous. I do not know how many times I have been asked to answer this straw-man objection to heterodox economics. No, there is nothing wrong with mathematics per se. No, there is nothing wrong with applying mathematics to economics. Mathematics is one valuable...

Happy Birthday, Karl Marx. You were right! On May 5, 1818, in the southern German town of Trier, in the picturesque wine-growing region of the Moselle Valley, Karl Marx was born … As we reach the bicentennial of Marx’s birth, what lessons might we draw from his dangerous and delirious philosophical legacy? What precisely is Marx’s lasting contribution? … The key factor in Marx’s intellectual legacy in our present-day society is not “philosophy” but...

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L’économie à l’épreuve des faits  [embedded content] Advertisements

Anatomie d’une triple crise Des trois crises actuelles, l’environnementale est à la fois la moins immédiatement saisissable et sans doute la plus fondamentale au regard de l’effet transformateur qu’elle pourrait produire sur les sociétés. Il ne s’agit d’ailleurs pas à proprement parler d’une crise, laquelle suppose un « avant », un « pendant » et un « après » — une sortie de crise. Or, même à supposer que les pays industrialisés adoptent les mesures...

On the road again  [embedded content] Advertisements

Respect is not a gift. It is something you have to earn! Every now and then your truly gets some upset comments from people wondering why I’m not always respectful of people like Eugene Fama, Robert Lucas, Greg Mankiw, Edward Prescott, Thomas Sargent and others of the same ilk. Here’s a good hint at why it might sometimes be quite appropriate to be disrespectful: Why can’t I be serious and respectful? Well, the answer is that we’re not having a serious...