I’m pleased to promote another Hayek vs Keynes event at the London School of Economics:
Date: Monday 13 February 2012
Time: 6.30-8pm
Venue: Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building
Speaker: Nicholas Wapshott
Chair: Professor Danny QuahEighty years ago at the LSE, Friedrich Hayek launched an assault upon the new economic thinking of John Maynard Keynes. The clash was so bitter and vituperative that it scandalized the cloistered world of academia. Eighty years on, the differences between the two men have still not been finally resolved and their conflicting approaches to the economy continue to define the profound chasm between politicians of left and right.
Nicholas Wapshott is a columnist for Reuters and regular contributor to Newsweek and The Daily Beast. He is the author of Keynes Hayek: The Clash That Defined Modern Economics and Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: A Political Marriage. He is a former senior editor for The Times and the New York Sun and editorial consultant to Oprah Winfrey.
Suggested hashtag for this event for Twitter users: #lsehvk
Ticket Information
This event is free and open to all however a ticket is required. One ticket per person can be requested on Tuesday 7 February.
See the LSE site for further details.
From where may a ticket be requested, please?
“See the LSE site for further details” :-)
5000 seats or more needed to satisfy demand. They should be holding this in the Royal Albert Hall or Wembley Arena
I am not sure I would promote an event featuring Wapshott. Greg Ransom at Taking Hayek Seriously has posted an “I do not recommend” post on Keynes Hayek: The Clash that Defined Modern Economics.
“The first thing to say about this book is that much the most of it is a fantasy.
But there are bigger problems with the book.
Nicholas Wapshott grew up as a British journalist and his approach to truth and objectivity and getting the story right unfortunately reflects that worst of that dubious background. The ethic Wapshott brings to material is the ethic Mark Twain brought to the Western story — reality never gets in the way of the demands of the tale he is determined to tell.
But it’s even worse than that.”
My own conclusion in a review upcoming in the Quarterly Review of Austrian Economics:
“Wapshott has clearly read and can quote Hayek’s technical work, usually out of context. But he has apparently benefited little for this reading. He remains totally committed to a macro as opposed to micro understanding of how an economy works. Wapshott’s assessment of the relative merits of Hayek and Keynes will appeal to and be quoted by the many planners of all parties firmly committed to the ideology that a modern economy truly needs somebody in charge.
However, Wapshott’s drama is not just a melodrama, but a fairytale. Readers truly looking for a better understanding of the crisis must look elsewhere. If one wants a better picture of how the world got into this mess and how applying the ideas of Keynes actually played out in the real world, Lemieux (2011) would be a good starting point.”
Ransom has said I was way to kind to Wapshott. I agree.
Perhaps Nicholas Wapshott could be educated by reading “Where Keynes Went Wrong” by Hunter Lewis.
But I suspect Mr Cochran is correct – someone like Wapshott is unreachable by reasoning.