RIP Kenneth Arrow.
Huge loss.
I should have just bet a tonne of money on Britain voting remain. That way, whatever the outcome, I’d be happy.
;)
A freshwater neoclassical real business cycle theorist was teaching a class on Robert Lucas, known market fundamentalist.
“Before the class begins, you must get on your knees and worship rational expectations and accept that it was the greatest contribution to macroeconomics the world has ever known, even greater than monetarism!”
At this moment, a brave, socialist, post-Keynesian and student of Minsky who had predicted the 2008 recession and understood the importance of the level of private debt and fully supported all government stimulus spending stood up and held up a dollar bill.
“How was this money created?”
The arrogant professor smirked quite optimally and smugly replied “The money multiplier, you stupid Keynesian”
“Wrong. Bank lending created it. If the money multiplier, as you say, is real… then it should be ten dollars now”
The professor was visibly shaken, and dropped his chalk and copy of Mankiw’s Macroeconomics. He stormed out of the room crying those neoclassical crocodile tears.
The students applauded and all subscribed to the The Post-Autistic Economic Review that day and accepted Keynes as their lord and savior. An eagle named “Debt Deflation” flew into the room and perched atop a copy of Debunking Economics and shed a tear on the cover. The final sentences of The General Theory were read several times, and the ghost of Sraffa himself showed up and showed that the supply curve was flat.
The professor lost his tenure and was fired the next day. His academic papers were burned and he died in poverty having lost all his money on the stock market.
