Keynes and His Influence: The Untold Story of the Triumph of Keynesian Economics
March 13, 2010
On March 11, I spoke to the annual Austrian Scholars conference, which is sponsored by the Mises Institute. My topic: "Keynes and His Influence."
The triumph of Keynes' "new economics" was almost complete by 1950. Yet this triumph was not achieved in the way that Keynesian economists accounts present it in the standard histories of economic thought. This is because the victors write the textbooks. They write it the way they want people to believe it.
My account is very different from what the handful of people who know anything about this story have been told.
A tactical error by F. A. Hayek was part of the story. So was the timing of the publication of The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money.
Today, the Keynesians seem to be universally triumphant. This is misleading. What we have seen since October of 2008 I have called the last stand of Keynesian economics.
For those who want a different view of how Keynesian economics defeated free market economics -- who, what, when, where, and why -- watch my video.