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From: orb@whuxl.UUCP (SEVENER)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Re: Business Cycles -- Note to Gadfly:Re to DKmcK
Message-ID: <637@whuxl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 14-May-85 08:48:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: whuxl.637
Posted: Tue May 14 08:48:30 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 15-May-85 00:53:17 EDT
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>  From JoSH:  > > from me
> >In order for there to be *no* economic cycles whatsoever the
> >system would have to be *constantly* at the exact equilibrium point.
> 
> This is complete, utter, total, absolute bullshit.  A system oscillates
> if it is underdamped;  if it is overdamped (or critically damped) it
> moves towards equilibrium asymptotically;  under no circumstances
> does it sit constantly at the equilibrium.
>  
Precisely my point: a *dynamic* system can never sit at the equilibrium
point.  It may tend towards the equiliibrium point which in itself
is probably shifting.  But there is also the possibility that it
can have wide fluctuations like: the Great Depression.

> >"There is no way for the human body to ever have high-blood pressure,
> > diabetes, or other such ills except for interference from the
> > brain!"
> >                       tim sevener   whuxl!orb
> 
> The business cycle is more aptly compared to the effects on a drug
> addict's body of his alternately overdosing and going cold turkey.
> The Keynesian "prescription" for this condition is an even, smoothly
> but constantly increasing dosage.  After all, in the long run we are
> all dead.
> 
> --JoSH

The Libertarian "prescription" is the Great Depression - lets leave
any stabilizing government influences aside and let the market put
33% of the workforce out of work.  After all in the long run we are
all out of work.
Regardless of revisionist history which tries to rewrite the history
of the origins of the Great Depression I have yet to see a refutation
of the fact that *massive government intervention* is what finally
brought the US out of the Depression.
This does not mean all government intervention is good, wise, or
necessary. It is simply accepting the fact that without it we might
have stayed mired in the Depression for years.
                 tim sevener  whuxl!orb