Hayek’s do-nothing advice during the depression did real harm

Evidence

Milton Friedman, who was a graduate student at Columbia and the University of Chicago at the time, recounted that he and his generation were not convinced by the proposition that “you just have to let the bottom drop out of the world.” He concluded that by encouraging a “donothing policy both in Britain and the United States,” Hayek and Robbins “did harm.” — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 82

Categorization

• XREF: Friedman, the later apostle of free markets, condemning Hayek’s laissez-faire as harmful is a striking reversal that complicates the standard MPS lineage. — connects to: Hayek’s economics failed because it offered no remedy during the Depression — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 81; Even Friedman rejected Hayek’s do-nothing policy as harmful in the Depression — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 82; Austrian fatalism made Hayek’s side politically unsalable in the Depression — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 490 (+1 more)
• SEED: Angle: the Chicago school’s founding identity was defined partly against Hayekian passivity, not only against Keynesian intervention.

Broader Connections

• Hayek’s economics failed because it offered no remedy during the Depression #corroborates (0.95) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 81
• Even Friedman rejected Hayek’s do-nothing policy as harmful in the Depression #corroborates (0.90) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 82
• Austrian fatalism made Hayek’s side politically unsalable in the Depression #corroborates (0.85) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 490
• Hayek’s own rhetoric invited the laissez-faire reading he later lamented #expands (0.75) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 223