Keynes’s economics angered market economists by validating populist policy instincts.

Evidence

To its initial readers, The General Theory seemed to have been constructed to address precisely the situation that the economies of En gland and the United States were confronting, and to offer a clear road map to the solution of the crisis. Further, its arguments in favor of loose credit, increased public expenditure, and restrictions on trade appeared to validate populist approaches to economic policy. This enraged economists who held opposing views; in correspondence with his colleague Jacob Viner, the Chicago economist Frank Knight wrote that Keynes was “taking the side of the maninthestreet,” lending succor to “antiintellectual” views, and “passing the keys of the citadel out of the window to the Philistines hammering at the gates.” — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 77

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Henry Simons saw Keynes’s General Theory as a potential fascist economic bible. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 161; Keynes’s popularity combined populist appeal with intellectual difficulty. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 77; French economists rejected Keynesianism as illegitimate from a left-wing perspective — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 298

Broader Connections

• Keynes’s popularity combined populist appeal with intellectual difficulty. #corroborates (0.80) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 77
• French economists rejected Keynesianism as illegitimate from a left-wing perspective #corroborates (0.72) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 298