The current economic debate could be described as a debate between Germans and Austrians.
Austrians (according to the so-called Austrian school of economics) believe that the only thing that matters is money. The goal of economic activity, they say, is to maximise the return on financial investment. If profits rise, everything rises – including production, education, wealth, level of civilisation, etc. You can usually find Austrians in banks or business schools. There are also very nice people among them – Markéta Šichtařová and Miroslav Ševčík, for example.
They are opposed by the Germans (after the 19th century German economist Friedrich List or Chancellors Bismarck and Adenauer). But we might as well call them the Americans, after Alexander Hamilton. They are concerned with building real productive capacity. They see financial flows as something supportive that needs to be carefully regulated. In the current Czech context, Ilona Švihlíková or Tomáš Doležal. But you will find many more people who think like this directly in companies.
Historically, the “Germans” built the prosperous Western world and the “Austrians” then occupied the intellectual clubs in it.
What about socialists? There are no socialists in the current economic debate. There is no current calling for central planning in the pre-Lisbon sense, or popular ownership of all the means of production. If someone starts arguing “socialism” in an economic debate, I suggest you end the debate quickly. You are almost certainly dealing with a bigot who is incapable of understanding the issues being discussed. And who probably doesn’t even care about the issues.
