Hayek vs. Keynes

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Hayek vs. Keynes Unemployment always has been a hot economic topic, especially during times of recession. The debate over the theories of Fredrich Von Hayek and John Maynard Keynes has been ongoing for decades. Included in the theories are their ideas on unemployment and how to repair the issue before the economy reaches another depression, like in the 1930’s. In this paper you will see a summary of each side as well as my thoughts on each theory. Hayek says that the cause of unemployment is a deviation from the equilibrium prices and wages. The problem with this is because a statistical connection between prices and unemployment is hard to get, which can mislead economists. (HAYEK, 1975) Therefore, if money is continuously placed into the money supply it is vital to maintain that flow of money. If a stimulus program is put out by the government to help increase that flow of money, it has to have something to keep it going when they stop. If the money supply is not up the economy will fall and will lead to higher unemployment rates. In Hayek’s eyes the employment rate is dependent on the rate of inflation. The reason for this is that when unemployment rates are low the labor market is smaller because everyone has a job. Employers must raise wages so they can attract more workers. (Hayek, 2008) When wages go up so does the cost of the production, which increases the cost of the consumer goods, and inflation goes up. The only way to sustain this is to have a high money supply. This will cause interest rates to decrease, according to Hayek; if they decrease it can cause investments to be insecurely high, leading to an economic bust-which is how the business cycles work. If a centralized planner is created to watch the industries and when they start failing, a stimulus package will have to be made to support and pick it back up. If the necessary data to watch the
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