Keynes, Hayek och Tea party-rörelsen.
In the best scene in The Standard of Living, James Graham’s new play about John Maynard Keynes, Keynes and fellow economist Friedrich Hayek are on fire duty on the roof of King’s College chapel, locked in debate as they wait for German bombs to drop. It’s all the better for being based in fact. Hayek argues that government intervention in markets during a downturn only makes things worse. Keynes responds. Since 1930, he says, the most vital forces in politics have been on the far left or the far right. Many of the brightest undergraduates at his beloved University of Cambridge were seduced by the deceptive certainties of Marxism. Hayek’s stance will only reinforce this tendency, he argues, while the future of civilization depends on reviving the vital center. Why does Keynes continue to fascinate us 80 years after his death? And — more importantly — does he have any lessons for us as we grapple with yet another crisis of the liberal order? The answer to the firs...
