Keynes the Man.pdf - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

Summing UpWAS KEYNES, as Hayek maintained, a “brilliantscholar”? “Scholar” hardly, since Keyneswas abysmally read in the economics literature:he was more of a buccaneer, taking a little bit ofknowledge and using it to inflict his personality and fallaciousideas upon the world, with a drive continually fueled by an arrogancebordering on egomania. But Keynes had the good fortuneto be born within the British elite, to be educated within the topeconomics circles (Eton/Cambridge/Apostles), and to be speciallychosen by the powerful Alfred Marshall.“Brilliant” is scarcely an apt word either. Clearly, Keynes wasbright enough, but his most significant qualities were his arrogance,his unlimited self-confidence, and his avid will to power,to domination, to cutting a great swath through the arts, the socialsciences, and the world of politics.Furthermore, Keynes was scarcely a “revolutionary” in any realsense. He possessed the tactical wit to dress up ancient statist andinflationist fallacies with modern, pseudoscientific jargon, makingthem appear to be the latest findings of economic science. Keyneswas thereby able to ride the tidal wave of statism and socialism,of managed and planning economies. Keynes eliminated economictheory’s ancient role as spoilsport for inflationist and statistschemes, leading a new generation of economists on to academicpower and to political pelf and privilege.A more fitting term for Keynes would be “charismatic”—not inthe sense of commanding the allegiance of millions but in being ableto con and seduce important people—from patrons to politicians to55