[This article originally appeared in the January 2013 edition of The Free Market.]
In the beginning of The General Theory, John Maynard Keynes says that his ideas will no doubt be rejected because they are so novel and revolutionary. Toward the end of the same book, he seems to have forgotten this because now he says he is reviving the same centuries-old ideas that he had once dismissed as the most absurd fallacies. At least he acknowledges that he is changing his position, although he does not explain how his ideas can be new, revolutionary, and also centuries old.
This is of a piece with his describing himself as a member of “the brave army of rebels and heretics down through the ages” even as he recommends policies that appeal to the basest and most self-serving instincts of politicians — and even as he enjoys all the immense privileges that accrue from being at the top of the existing financial and political establishment.
Although it may be true, as the art historian Kenneth Clark said, that Keynes “never dimmed his headlights,” it cannot be said that he knew how to drive on a single side of the road. Keynes, would become the principal apologist for “crony capitalism,” which is perhaps the best term to describe our current system. As you probably know, much of Keynes’s writing is intentionally obscure, although the threads can be unraveled and rebutted, as Henry Hazlitt so brilliantly proved in The Failure of “The New Economics.” …To Read More…..
My Take - Keynes was wrong in so many areas that I always find it disturbing to find that someone like Romney ....as sucessful busnessman.... supports ideas that run the same course of thinking created by Keynes. Keynes wanted government to "spend" their way out of the depression believing that budget decifits were a good thing. The Brits....he's was British ...... thought spending money they didn't have was insane during an economic downturn and that he was an economic loon and ignored him and as a result came out of the depression much faster than the U.S. The U.S. bought into his claptrap hook, line and sinker and extended the depression until after WWII. By the way....WWII didn't end the depression, it merely created full employment.
My Take - Keynes was wrong in so many areas that I always find it disturbing to find that someone like Romney ....as sucessful busnessman.... supports ideas that run the same course of thinking created by Keynes. Keynes wanted government to "spend" their way out of the depression believing that budget decifits were a good thing. The Brits....he's was British ...... thought spending money they didn't have was insane during an economic downturn and that he was an economic loon and ignored him and as a result came out of the depression much faster than the U.S. The U.S. bought into his claptrap hook, line and sinker and extended the depression until after WWII. By the way....WWII didn't end the depression, it merely created full employment.
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