Early neoliberal economists disputed Keynes by arguing Germany could pay the reparations

Evidence

Etienne Mantoux was recognized among the circles of early neoliberals as a highly promising scholar, mostly through his essay on Keynes’s claim that Germany could not pay back the reparations demanded after the First World War. He argued the opposite (as did others among the early neoliberal economists, especially Rueff and Heilperin). Educated at Sciences Po in Paris as a student of Halévy’s, whom he admired and visited privately on a regular basis, he moved to London in the mid-1930s to study with Harold Laski and Hayek at the LSE. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 380

Categorization

• XREF: The Keynes-versus-Mantoux reparations debate foreshadows later austerity disputes over German debt and capacity to pay, echoing the economic policy fights this reader studies. — connects to: Germany deliberately inflated the mark to sabotage reparations payments. — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 525; French reliance on German reparations forced interest-driven deficits and inflation. — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 546; Versailles reparations created an impossible triangular debt structure. (+2 more)
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: what exactly did Mantoux argue in his essay on German reparations, and how did early neoliberals use it to attack Keynes? A direct precursor to postwar austerity doctrine.

Broader Connections

• Anti-Keynesianism and Austrian marginalism unite the two neo-liberalisms #corroborates (0.80) — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 527