If only the Nazis had believed in theoclassical economics...

The Economic History of Germany

I love how deftly the authors avoid the conclusion that the heavy-government-intervention economic policies of the Nazis actually did achieve impressive results (viewed from a purely economic perspective, of course). Like with this Zen shit: "Often the apparent successes of such economies are just illusions. Outsiders who do not know how such economies really work are often fooled by these illusions." Yeah, the "outsiders who do not know how such economies really work" - comprising the entire European continent plus Russia - were pretty fucking fooled by the illusory successes of the German military, fueled as it was by the German economy, which of course was successful only in an illusory sense. If only Europeans and Russians during the war could have had the Zen consciousness of this article's author, they could have realized that the German war machine hadn't in fact decimated their homelands, because it was based on an illiberal economic system which can only ever boast of "illusory" successes.

Also, I love the fantasy-economic determinism of the author - as if the only independent variable on economic success is whether or not a liberal economic system is in place. So after the war, "near-famine" conditions were "[t]he net result" of government interference in the economy. (Or 'government molestation of the sacrosanct free market', to put it in terms more in keeping with the spirit of theoclassical economics.) Externalities - like the utter devastation of the country by years of carpet bombing, or the deaths of millions upon millions of citizens - are irrelevant. Hahahahahahaha!