Neoliberals inverted Schumpeter and Keynes, casting Keynes as the pessimist.

Evidence

Giersch published his seminal text on the new age of Schumpeter in 1984,40 which marked the end of the age of merely defensive optimism within MPS neoliberalism. Now relying on a selective reading of Schumpeter, neoliberals like Giersch proudly professed a new confidence in greatly expanded notions of entrepreneurship. The age of Keynes and macroeconomic steering had come to an end according to Giersch. Keynes is presented as the pessimist instead of Schumpeter, who is turned into a trusting supporter of capitalist revival right after World War II. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 294

Categorization

• SEED: Angle for an essay: how intellectual lineages get selectively re-read — the 1984 Schumpeter revival as a deliberate inversion of original texts to suit a new political moment.
• XREF: connects to: Neoliberals abandoned Schumpeter’s fatalism for Mises’ political-contingency view of entrepreneurship. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 288

Broader Connections

• Neoliberals abandoned Schumpeter’s fatalism for Mises’ political-contingency view of entrepreneurship. #expands (0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 288