Keynes the Man.pdf - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

Murray N. Rothbard 11Born to the PurpleKEYNES was born under special circumstances, an heirto the ruling circles not only of Britain but of the Britisheconomics profession as well. His father, John NevilleKeynes, was a close friend and former student ofAlfred Marshall, Cambridge professor and unchallenged lion ofBritish economics for half a century. Neville Keynes had disappointedMarshall by failing to live up to his early scholarly promise,producing only a bland treatise on the methodology of economics,a subject disdained as profoundly “un-English” (J. N.Keynes [1891] 1955).The classic refuge for a failed academic has long been universityadministration, and so Neville happily buried himself in thecontrollership and other powerful positions in Cambridge Universityadministration. Marshall’s psyche compelled him to feel amoral obligation toward Neville that went beyond the pure loyaltyof friendship, and that sense of obligation was carried overto Neville’s beloved son Maynard. Consequently, when Maynardeventually decided to pursue a career as an economist at Cambridge,two extremely powerful figures at that university—hisfather and Alfred Marshall—were more than ready to lend him ahelping hand.11