Hitler addresses ECHR. Debunks Germany’s “criminal sanctioning of use of Nazi symbols” as virtue signalling deflecting from him having been a true Keynesian

This is in reference to the Case 35285/16 and the ECHR's decision in April 2018. There is among others the salient paragraph 47. Fortunately, someone with first hand knowledge and expertise was only too eager to chip in and get a couple of misconceptions straight.

So here is the ECHR live:

  47. In the light of their historical role and experience, States which have experienced the Nazi horrors may be regarded as having a special moral responsibility to distance themselves from the mass atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis (ibid., § 243, with further references). The Court considers that the legislature’s choice to criminally sanction the use of Nazi symbols, to ban the use of such symbols from German political life, to maintain political peace (also taking into account the perception of foreign observers), and to prevent the revival of Nazism (see paragraph 30 above) must be seen against this background. 

Hitler would chuckle but hey, here he is in person, more or less. Let's listen to Dear Leader back then:

'Gents, lady! With all due respect, we, the Nazis, did not gain power via pictures or symbols. There were economical reasons, the nation was being slighted and financially damaged by the Versailles Treaty. Capice. Or in today's terms: 'It's the economy, stupid!'

I did not become top honcho or Hero Number One as they say in India of a country by strutting around with a Gucci label on my handbag. Not only was I a gifted painter, I was a genius in applied economics. Did you gents never appreciate the fact that I was a Keynesian?? Yeah, take that.

"For today’s generation, Hitler is the most hated man in history, and his regime the archetype of political evil. This view does not extend to his economic policies, however. Far from it. They are embraced by governments all around the world. The Glenview State Bank of Chicago, for example, recently praised Hitler’s economics in its monthly newsletter. In doing so, the bank discovered the hazards of praising Keynesian policies in the wrong context."

FYI gents & lady in Strasbourg, this was the situation in our neighbor country Austria.

"As we can see, the budget deficit was radically cut right down until 1936, and was virtually eliminated, since by October 1936 the budget deficit was about 0.5% of GDP (Berger 2003: 90).

Some of the austerity policies included:

(1) the elimination of the works council in 1934;

(2) a series of cuts to welfare, and

(3) slashing of unemployment benefits to the point where only 50% of the unemployed in 1936 received benefits (Obinger 2018: 86).

How did the economy perform under this austerity?

The Austrian economy was awful."

Now watch the difference courtesy me, the Big Kahuna.

"While in Austria, the clerical fascists pursued austerity and wage and price deflation from 1934 to 1937, in Germany the National Socialist government of Hitler implemented a series of economic interventions that involved large government deficits, direct public works programs, and rearmament. This program was undoubtedly Keynesian in its fiscal effects, despite some modern attempts to deny this like Tooze (2008) (on the simulative nature of Germany’s deficits and policies after 1933, see Cohn 1992; Fremdling and Stäglin 2015; Overy 1996). The fact that German military spending was higher by 1935 than some historians have thought does not change the reality that military Keynesianism is still Keynesianism. It is clear that German policy down to 1936 was a mix of military and civilian Keynesian spending.

So how did Austrian unemployment compare to unemployment in Germany?

While Austrian unemployment remained high, German unemployment fell rapidly.

Popular support for the Austro-fascist regime collapsed by 1938 given the economic disasters and high unemployment, and when Hitler annexed Austria in March 1938 there was no doubt a great deal of support for the Anschluss within Austria."

Genius that I am I went ballistic Keynes and boy, was I successful except for some minor hiccups along the road which finally convinced me to put an end to my great life.

"What were those economic policies? He suspended the gold standard, embarked on huge public works programs like Autobahns, protected industry from foreign competition, expanded credit, instituted jobs programs, bullied the private sector on prices and production decisions, vastly expanded the military, enforced capital controls, instituted family planning, penalized smoking, brought about national health care and unemployment insurance, imposed education standards, and eventually ran huge deficits. The Nazi interventionist program was essential to the regime’s rejection of the market economy and its embrace of socialism in one country.

Such programs remain widely praised today, even given their failures. They are features of every “capitalist” democracy. Keynes himself admired the Nazi economic program, writing in the foreword to the German edition to the General Theory: “[T]he theory of output as a whole, which is what the following book purports to provide, is much more easily adapted to the conditions of a totalitarian state, than is the theory of production and distribution of a given output produced under the conditions of free competition and a large measure of laissez-faire.”

You may want to visualize my genius. Well here it is, the Chart of Fiscal Stimulus Beauty courtesy that Brit Ralph Musgrave.

I was working magic

I hear that some ridiculously clad nutball from India had written two letters to me which the British bastards had intercepted. Proves that I had fans the world over. Very well possible he fell for our use of the swastika, I never cared about trademarks and copyright. Honestly, I could have used a violet lily or a pink thong as our party emblem and would still have "won the hearts and minds of my people". Just watch the present political climate the world over.

You may also want to notice that I embrace "a broadly Malthusian or Spencerian vision of populations of humans destined to fight each other: Each nation or race will breed too many people to share the planet".

As for my German countrymen's Criminal Code 86a, gents & lady, that 's virtue signalling. Pure, simple and pathetic virtue signalling.'

Not yet convinced? Here are some very good posts:

Macro-economic policy and votes in the thirties: Germany (and The Netherlands) during the Great Depression

Macroeconomics in Germany: The forgotten lesson of Hjalmar Schacht

Nazi Germany’s Economic Recovery-Schacht’s Triumph and Keynes’ Vindication

The best at last:

Hjalmar Schacht, Mefo Bills and the Restoration of the German Economy 1933-1939