Wednesday, June 27, 2012

The Abe Simpson Version of Macroeconomics?

This is a quotation from Richard M. Ebeling's article entitled Austrian Macroeconomics:  Review of Roger W. Garrison's Time and Money.  This quote reminds me of Abraham Simpson from the Simpsons show!  See if you can guess why!  In my own person life, I remember my grandpa telling me about his lived experiences in the Soviet Union (the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic).  These stories certainly left a mark on me--when I think of communism, I think of how the total State starved my family members almost to death.  Also, the discussion in Ebeling's quote is very relevant to today's economic situation:  he is talking about the German hyperinflation of the early 1920s.

After an experience of credit expansion, inflation, and the business cycle, the memory remains, both of the details of how it has effected various people in their respective corners of the market and what they have learned about the mechanisms and consequences of government policy in general. 
Many Germans, over several generations, seemed to have retained a "living memory"--even when it was based on what grandpa has told--about the dangers of monetary abuse and hyperinflation derived from the experiences of the early 1920s.

No comments:

Post a Comment