{"id":11299,"date":"2011-08-04T08:11:44","date_gmt":"2011-08-04T07:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=11299"},"modified":"2011-08-05T21:40:16","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T20:40:16","slug":"keynes-v-hayek-and-why-keynes-had-to-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2011\/08\/04\/keynes-v-hayek-and-why-keynes-had-to-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Keynes v Hayek, and why Keynes had to win"},"content":{"rendered":"

I warmly recommend listening to the debate on the above subject broadcast on Radio 4 yesterday and available to listen to here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Duncan Weldon and Robert Skidelsky gave good, and amusing account of\u00a0themselves for keynes. The Hayekians showed themselves in their usual light; as charmless people with no sense of empathy for the human race. As someone put it to me, chess players have more feeling for their pieces than these people seem to have for the people of the world.<\/p>\n

One small example worth elaborating on: it seemed to be an obsession of those representing Hayek \u00a0that those banks that were failing in September and October 2008 should \u00a0have been allowed to go to the wall. \u00a0The sheer downright stupidity of this desire \u00a0indicates the complete lack of logic that underpins their thinking.<\/p>\n

Suppose that both Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds \u00a0had gone out of business in the space of a few days in October 2008. \u00a0At least 50% of the U.K.'s population would have been left not only without bank accounts, but without access to cash. \u00a0So too would a substantial number of the retailers in this country \u00a0have been left without any mechanism for banking, \u00a0whether to collect money electronically \u00a0or to make payment of their suppliers. \u00a0The consequence would have been all too obvious. \u00a0There would have been a complete breakdown in the food supply chain of this country \u00a0within days. \u00a0There would have been mass rioting as people panicked \u00a0about how to feed their families. \u00a0Massive companies would have collapsed within days. \u00a0Banking as we know it would have completely failed - \u00a0because as we know banking is a system \u00a0that works as a whole and is not a series of separate companies \u00a0although the supporters of Hayek ( almost none of whom, I suspect, have ever actually \u00a0worked in business) \u00a0think otherwise. Cash itself, almost entirely electronic these days and represented by entries on computer ledgers, would have failed. \u00a0For all practical purposes we could have been reduced to a barter economy, \u00a0or a police state, \u00a0and democracy could certainly have been at risk. \u00a0But this is what \u00a0the supporters of Hayek wanted. \u00a0They actively say that this would have been the best outcome and the one they wanted.<\/p>\n

Now you can describe this as mad, \u00a0but that's just being too kind.<\/p>\n

This is not mad; \u00a0this is bad. \u00a0This is malevolence, \u00a0targeted at real people; \u00a0the people of the UK, \u00a0with intent to destroy the structure of society as we know it.<\/p>\n

We have to recognise this \u00a0malevolence for what it is. \u00a0Democrats \u00a0from left and right have to stand up against \u00a0those who promote economics designed solely to serve the interests of a tiny minority in the UK, which has deliberate intent to oppress the vast majority. \u00a0We have seen such politics blatantly at work \u00a0in the USA now, and have seen the chaos that is capable of causing, \u00a0 and are beginning to comprehend the havoc that it will unleash on ordinary people. \u00a0And we are beginning to realise that this is not politics as we have known it. \u00a0This is not the politics of democracy. \u00a0This is not the politics of reason. \u00a0This is the politics \u00a0of oppression and \u00a0fanaticism.<\/p>\n

Keynes, democracy, the welfare state, \u00a0reason and empathy have to win this debate. \u00a0The alternative is too bad to contemplate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I warmly recommend listening to the debate on the above subject broadcast on Radio 4 yesterday and available to listen to here. Duncan Weldon and
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