Keynes’ kamp

Har du nogensinde tænkt over, hvad økonomi er for en videnskab? Hvordan opstod den, og hvem var dens grundlæggere?

Eller har du interesseret dig for moderne diskussioner om samfundet, herunder ulighed, ressourceforbrug eller konkurrence? Hvis dette er tilfældet, er økonomiens teorihistorie vigtig og nyttig for dig. Den type af diskussioner er nemlig mindst lige så gammel som den økonomiske videnskab selv, og du vil i dens rødder også finde rødderne til de moderne argumenter.

I dagens afsnit skal vi tale om en baron. En baron der af mange anses som det 20. århundredes største økonom, nemlig John Maynard Keynes. Vi kommer til at beskæftige os med ham ift. ham som person og hans tid. Keynes var en kompleks og spændende herre som udover økonomi havde stor passion for kulturliv, aktiehandel og politik, men måske også var en anelse for blåøjet i hans fokusering på den korte bane. Derfor vil vi også beskæftige os med hans kritikere, såsom Hayek, Buchanan og Friedman. 

Der er meget mere at vide om Keynes og til de særligt interesserede, har min dygtige underviser Professor Caldwell disse noter:

The literature on Keynes is gargantuan; one is tempted to paraphrase Mill on value theory and say that, as far as our knowledge of Keynes is concerned, nothing remains for the present or any future author to clear up. There is first of all The Collected Writings of John Maynard Xeynes, Austin Robinson and Donald Moggridge, eds., 30 volumes (London: Macmillan [for the Royal Economic Society], 1971-89).

Confident of their value Keynes seems to have written every thought down, preserving them in notes stuck on a spike on his desk, in diaries and in letters to others. Thus The Collected Writings, in addition to eleven volumes containing all of Keynes' major published writings, include two devoted to correspondence and thirteen covering other "activities." Especially important are volumes 13, 14 and 29 (the last a supplement necessitated by the discovery, in the winter of 1975-76 at Keynes's summer house in Tilton, of a laundry hamper full of papers) on the development and defense of The Treatise on Money and The General Theory. This huge primary source has been a gold mine for Keynes scholars. Even so, the editors have been criticized on occasion for their selectivity, and an additional multi-volume work edited by Rod O'Donnell entitled The Collected Philosophical and Other Writings of J.M. Keynes is now underway.

 The starting point in the secondary literature was once Roy Harrod's long (656 pages), eloquent and nuanced paean, The Life of John Maynard Keynes (N.Y.: Harcourt Brace, 1951; N.Y.: Norton, 1982) and Seymour Harris, ed. The New Economics. Keynes' Influence on Theory and Public Policy (N.Y.: Knopf, 1947), the latter a collection of essays by many major economists of the day.  More recently two impressive works have appeared. D.E. Moggridge's (941 pp.) Maynard Keynes: An Economist’s Biography (London: Routledge, 1992) is somewhat dry, but comprehensive, and as an economist he is in the position to comment upon a half a century of economists' writings on Keynes, and Keynes’ own writings on economics. The historian Robert Skidelsky's three volume life of Keynes is comprehensive and beautifully written: John Maynard Keynes. Hopes Betrayed 1883-1920, Volume 1 (N.Y.: Viking, [1983], 1986),  JMK: The Economist as Saviour 1920-1937, Volume 2 (London: Macmillan, 1992), andJMK. Fighting for Britain, 1937-46 Volume 3 (London: Macmillan, 2000). For a one volume treatment that condenses the three, see Skidelsky’s John Maynard Keynes 1883-1946: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman (London: Penguin, 2005). Two comprehensive collections of articles on Keynes are John Maynard Keynes: Critical Assessments, ed. John C. Wood, 4 volumes (London: Croom Helm, 1983), which includes the major articles (150 of them) published between 1936-1981, and John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946), ed. Mark Blaug, 2 volumes (Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1991), which gather those published from 1981-1989. See also Roger Backhouse and Bradley Bateman, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Keynes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).

 

Peter Clarke makes superb use of documentary material to trace the development and integration of Keynes's thought on politics, policy, and economic theory from 1924-1936. See his The Keynesian Revolution in the Making, 1924-36 (Oxford: Clarendon, [1988), 1990). Another solid treatment, one that is fully accessible to the lay reader, is Donald Winch, Economics and Policy. A Historical Study (N.Y.: Walker and Co., 1969).

Four excellent studies on the development of Keynes’ theoretical thought leading up to the General Theory are Peter Clarke, op. cit.; Don Patinkin, "Keynes' Monetary Thought: A Study of Its Development", History of Political Economy, vo1. 8 (Spring 1976), pp. 1-150; Keynes, Cambridge and The General Theory, Don Patinkin and Clark Leith, eds. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978); and Robert Dimand, The Origins of the Keynesian Revolution: The Development of Keynes' Theory of Employment and Output (Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1988).

 Til dagens afsnit har jeg læst:

AIERvideo. (15. oktober 2019). The March of History: Mises vs. Marx - The Definitive Capitalism vs. Socialism Rap Battle. Hentet fra Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwqnRYPcrl0

Bateman, B. (2006). Keynes and Keynesianism. In R. E. Backhouse, & B. W. Bateman, The Cambridge Companion to Keynes (pp. 271-290). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Buchanan, J. M., & Wagner, R. E. (1977). Democracy in Deficit: The Political Legacy of Lord Keynes. Cambridge: Academic Press.

Bylund, P. L. (2014). Ronald Coase's "Nature of the Firm" and the Argument for Economic Planning. Journal of the History of Economic Thought, s. 305-329.

Emergent Order. (23. januar 2010). Fear the Boom and Bust: Keynes vs. Hayek - The Original Economics Rap Battle! Hentet fra Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0nERTFo-Sk

Emergent Order. (27. april 2011). Fight of the Century: Keynes vs. Hayek - Economics Rap Battle Round Two. Hentet fra Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTQnarzmTOc

Hayek, F. A. (1945). The Use of Knowledge in Society. The American Economic Review, s. 519-530.

Keynes, J. M. (1926). The End of Laissez-Faire. In M&S: 622-625.  

Keynes, J. M. (1936). The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. New York: Harcourt Brace. Kapitel 2: 18-22, kapitel 3: 32-34, kapitel 12, kapitel 22: 313-320 & kapitel 24. 

Mises, L. v. (2016). Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth. Morrisville: Lulu Press, Inc.

I like to dedicate this season to my teachers Ole Bruus and Bruce Caldwell. All mistakes and mispronunciations are mine alone and no fault of theirs.