Epstein and Taylor: Are we all Keynesians now?

Richard Epstein and John Taylor reflect on the global economic crisis of 2008 and discuss why the Keynesian narrative of events fails to identify and explain the causes at the root of the crisis. Epstein and Taylor evaluate the government responses to the crisis, assessing the effectiveness of TARP and President Obamas stimulus legislation. Finally, Epstein and Taylor lay out the future steps that government must take to ensure recovery and growth. Key among them: Dont raise taxes.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• HooverInstitutionUK
• Keynes
• Friedman
• free markets
• government intervention
• monetary policy
• taxes

[ghuegel]

This interviewer is great. I saw him interview Christopher Hitchens and his questions there were really interesting too.

Who is this interviewer?... it's not in the description.

[HooverInstitution]

@ghuegel Peter Robinson is the interviewer. The following is his short bio

Peter is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, where he writes about business and politics, edits Hoover's quarterly journal, the Hoover Digest, and hosts Hoover's vidcast program, Uncommon Knowledge™.

Robinson spent six years in the White House, serving from 1982 to 1983 as chief speechwriter to Vice President George Bush and from 1983 to 1988 as special assistant and speechwriter to President Ronald Reagan.

[Wormtail81]

It is only fair to point out that the bailouts started under Bush, and he did a lot of the things these gentlemen justly criticize President Obama for doing. The intervention in the housing market was bipartisan in a way that little legislation ever is.

[atreya87]

I believe rather that, investment banks engaged in such risky lending practices precisely because they knew the Fed had a moral obligation to act as lender of last resort. The result is that it creates incentives for banks to transfer their responsibility/risks to someone else. And so, the fundamental premise of Friedman's philosophy, 'Friedmanomics' if you will, still holds, i.e. that no body takes someone else's responsibility as seriously as their own.

[atreya87]

Abolish the Fed! In my opinion, if there was no governing bank that acted as a lender of last resort (i.e. the Federal Reserve), I don't think investment banks would even consider engaging in such risky lending practices in the first place, don't you think? Hoover Institution, I would appreciate your response to this, preferably from an academic economist. I seldom get objective responses to queries like this.

[Silverbuzzsuccess]

Best Interview I have seen in 3 years since the crisis.. This is how an interview should be conducted!!! But one thing that bothered me, was that they all talked about the possibility of taking a partial amount back out, of the combined 1.5 trillion injected between Bush and Obama into the system.. What mechanism would actually be used for this colossal remedial task??? That idea sounds completely impractical and elusive!

[manonthemount]

@greengringo2003 You need to pick up your nearest dictionary and look up the terms 'socialist' and marxist'. You shouldn't attempt to use words you don't understand; it undermines your already incoherent ramblings. We do agree on one thing, Obama is tone-deaf to the American people. Research this year's WSJ-NBC bipartisan poll. If Obama listened to the American people, he'd stop conceding to obstructionist republicans and endorse the liberal agenda that got him elected in the first place.

[july142]

great stuff... thank you



[greengringo2003]

What's really fair to point out is that OBAMA is at best a SOCIALIST, and likely is a MARXIST. He wants government to control people's lives to an extent that Americans WILL NOT accept. HE.IS.TOAST.IN.2012.

And hopefully sooner, except he's so tone-deaf to the American people, that he wouldn't notice if somebody gave him a hotfoot and the fire was starting to burn his heinie.

[daviddalbylive]

No, here's why because Keynes was famous for CHANGING

HIS MIND and because he was famous for changing his mind

that means you cannot cast his ideas in stone because

he would have changed them at least several times. You

actually dishonor Keynes by falsely believing he would

still think the same way today.

[Ricardog95]

All very studied comments which sound so impersonal to what is really being felt. Is this the way you talk about a country of folk losing everything....And By design!

[tekmnd]

Great interview, but Richard Epstein looks a bit like Jerry Lewis in the Nutty Professor :)