So, come to that, is neoclassical economics complete and utter rubbish.
Sez’ the man who walked out of his economics lectures in week 3 because it was obviously all rubbish.
Sigh.
Those models of the economy assume that people are rational, selfish, and perfectly informed. They know everything about the choices they’re going to make, all of which is complete and utter tosh
Not, in fact, true.
We’re also going to talk about the fact that neoclassical and neoliberal economics assume that markets are efficient
Ah, we’re going to get the usual misunderstanding of the efficient markets hypothesis, are we?
They also declare that governments are bad and the private sector is always better,
Wholly untrue. Neoliberals – as opposed to neoclassicals – just think that the range where governments are better is smaller.
we’re in the mess we are, because, in fact, in our economy at present, we’ve got too little government,
An, erm, interesting claim at the very least.
For example, that we should have free trade without any restrictions, and even worse, free capital flow, meaning that money can go and hide in tax havens at liberty, and that we should always have low taxes because they’re always better for a society.
Even that’s not true.
This series is gonna be fun, right?
Has the gubberment ever been bigger???
That depends on what you call the “government”. Was it bigger during WW2 and the wartime command economy? Or did Attlee make it bigger by nationalising everything? A nationalised industry is part of the government, after all. Who else is running it? To what end?
So, we *shouldn’t* have taken capital overseas to build the Argentine railways, and brought more capital back home.
Murphy does not know the difference between an axiom and a hypothesis.
I suppose that accountancy is all about arithmetic so an understanding of Euclidean Geometry is not necessary.
My favourite paragraph so far
All of which, when you stand back and look at them, are completely ludicrous. And so, because people have to face the reality of arguing with people who deal with neoliberalism, and promote it, and believe in it, we are going to make a series on the assumptions that underpin both neoliberalism and neoclassical economics, pointing out what’s wrong with what they think, and how you can argue with a neoliberal, and win.
Blocking 25,000 people on Twitter and nearly 4 times that on your blog is ‘winning the argument’ apparently
I’m impressed! He talks perfect shit without a trace of accent!
It’s all smoke. Commie dick Murphy’s core belief is freedom is bad. He doesn’t believe what he is saying; he doesn’t even know what he is saying. His only concern is how effective it is.
This is all agitprop to get people to accept loss of freedom. He will say anything to accomplish destruction of our freedom. No one should expect ANYTHING he says is true. It’s all a calculation.
The Oolon Colluphid of economics.
The UK now has more economists than it’s had in its entire history. Anyone seen any improvements?
– This is all agitprop to get people to accept loss of freedom. He will say anything to accomplish destruction of our freedom. No one should expect ANYTHING he says is true. It’s all a calculation.
Really? I know Van_Patten on here thinks he’s the biggest embodiment of pure evil evah, etc, but surely Murphy is just a pathetic, stupid, spiteful little twat pompously spouting useless shit from the spare bedroom of his fenland end terrace. It’s far more likely he believes what he says at the time he says it, just as he does when he contradicts it three days later.
The only reason he has any influence at all is because the left has so many pathetic, stupid, spiteful little twats in its ranks (who haven’t yet met him). If Murphy suddenly devoted himself entirely to his train set the most significant thing to occur in the world would be Tim having to find a new source of sport. He’s just a jerk.
Agree almost entirely with PJF.
Only amendment is that the white cat (who has switched to controlling HuffPost, Vox etc after James got rid of its old puppet, Blofeld) knows that AI looks at the number of references to judge the *assumed* respectability (in lieu of validity that it cannot measure) of claims, so it uses Murphy and similar “useful idiots” to publish thousands of nonsense claims on the internet until Google will show them as being “received wisdom” because they outnumber denials that 2+2=5
Gamecock: you give him too much credit for deviousness. If you ever heard him talking about this stuff you would know that he’s an irritating gobshite who cannot stand being contradicted. However some see him as a useful idiot which is why he hasn’t faded away into the bogs of Ely.
>For example, that we should have free trade without any restrictions
So . . . he agrees with Trump that tariffs are useful? Or is it, like everyone else, they’re only bad when the US does them?
Murphy is a repellent cvnt and yes like VP I do believe him to be evil.
I’m almost tempted to try to post a comment in praise of his latest blog on Palestine Action under the name Leni Riefenstahl in the expectation that, being supportive of Murphy, it would be published (for a while until one of his more informed commentators pointed out the irony).
What PJF said. And, paradoxically, to be really evil you need to have some virtue. Milton’s Satan has the virtue of great courage. Murphy has no virtue – he’s just a laughably pompous and ignorant jerk.
The evil of banality.
“Those models of the economy assume that people are rational, selfish, and perfectly informed.”
Surely they don’t need to be for free markets to work. If people are spending their own money on the things that they want to spend it on, why does it matter that they might make ill informed choices?
“They also declare that governments are bad and the private sector is always better.”
Not always obviously but almost always. How is it even possible not to know this?
“you give him too much credit for deviousness”
I give him credit for being able to read. He didn’t create his talking points. He’s a parrot.
I give you the WHY for what he does. I guess you don’t need to know that. If a goofball blathering goofy shit works for you, fine.
The bot comments are quite entertaining.
PJF
I tends to agree that he may be an unusual candidate for the embodiment of pure evil and agree with you that he is somewhat pathetic simultaneously.
I would point out you still, regardless of evidence back the Ukraine war and appear to be doing very well on the back of MI6/ CIA funding. Hope it’s keeping well for you.