Afternoon Must-Read: Noah Smith: Austrian Economists, 9/11 Truthers and Brain Worms

Noah Smith: Austrian Economists, 9/11 Truthers and Brain Worms: “The Austrian worldview is like a brain worm…

…that has infected large swathes of our financial industry, commentariat and general public…. When the Austrian brain-worm invades, you start believing things like: 1) Federal Reserve money-printing is a government plot to boost big banks, 2) prices are rising much faster than anyone thinks, 3) real ‘inflation’ means money-printing, not an increase in prices, 4) printing money can never boost the economy, 5) academic economics is a plot to use mathematical mumbo-jumbo to cover up government giveaways to big banks, etc., etc…. The years 2011 and 2012 were to Austrians like sunrise is to a vampire. It was simply amazing to sit there and watch Austrians writhe and contort under the pure, burning light of extant reality. Massive torrents of Fed ‘money-printing’ failed to budge prices; this fact directly cracked the central foundations of Austrian thought…. How did Austrians deal with this assault by the forces of extant reality?…. They attempted to deny it…. They redefine[d] reality…. You can define inflation to be a rare poisonous South American tree frog if you want, and the only consequence will be that people think you’re off your rocker…. But brain worms have a way of just burrowing deeper to escape the light, and my Twitter feed is still occasionally hijacked by true believers screeching that inflation really is off the charts, that I’m a corrupt spokesman for big banks and government overlords…. If you’re one of the people who has been fully or partially enslaved by this brain worm, I implore you: Resist…. I don’t expect many of you to heed my call, but a couple of you will…. That’s how brain worms get defeated–a few minds are liberated, and then a few more, and then a few more…