Which economists "get it"? Austrian vs. Keynesian?

Those schooled in Austrian Economics:
Ludwig von Mises was right.


One such blogger/pundit/commentator of the Austrian school is Gonzalo Lira;  see him compare and contrast the different governmental approaches to solve the debt crises in Ireland vs Iceland.  Without mentioning Mises, Keynes, or any other economic theory, he describes why the Austrian approach is successful, and gives another example of a Keynesian failure:

Iceland recovers faster, with expected pain, in a short time, when malinvested monies and debts are liquidated.  The taxpayer in Iceland is not expected to pay for the debt assumed by a private bank.  Unemployment dips fast, then recovers fast, in a V shaped curve.

Ireland's leadership in Dublin, and their masters in Brussels, take the Keynesian approach to the problem, increasing but spreading out the suffering by propping up failed or failing private financial institutions.  This is done by spreading the debt to the tax-paying public by guaranteeing debt by the government (local taxpayer money), or IMF or EU funds (foreign taxpayer money).  This only prolongs an inevitable correction, when even greater debts must be dealt with.  Quantitative easing/increasing the money supply or any other term you wish to apply devalues the currency and allows the debt to be paid off in cheaper currency.  Capital is drained from the productive portion of the economy, and businesses stagnate and contract.  Unemployment assumes an L shaped curve at best.

Keynesian approaches to solving economic problems can only continue for so long.

Think of it as auto-cannibalism:  In order to support your brain and your heart and other vital organs, you eat your hands, arms, feet, legs, and so on.  IMF or EU funds is like finding another body nearby on which to feed, but in doing so you sap that body as well.  It cannot go on indefinitely.  Either a country must deal with its debt by paying it off, or must declare insolvency and liquidate the debt.

(Relevant article: MEP of the UK Conservative Party and friend of the Austrian school of economics and libertarians in general Daniel Hannan write about Ireland here.)

Up til now the Keynesians' debt has been put off until future generations.  The bill has come due.

The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead. 
--John Maynard Keynes


I work for a Government I despise for ends I think criminal.
--John Maynard Keynes