Via Damian Thompson, at the UK Telegraph.
It turns out that John Maynard Keynes was an anti-Semite.
Read about his life though – it is not surprising.
Via Damian Thompson, at the UK Telegraph.
It turns out that John Maynard Keynes was an anti-Semite.
Read about his life though – it is not surprising.
Even if he were I don't really think it does his theories any harm. In the early 20th century, being anti-semitic was to a good extent the hip thing to be, regardless.
Were Rothbard an anti-semite, would his economic theories be any less sound?
The word anti-Semite gets thrown around…as if it connotes some diseased mental state akin to leprosy. Keynes was a notoriously flippant man and it's hard to attribute any consistent position towards him. It's likely that he made those remarks as a half serious nasty quip in private company back before the Inquisition for public politcorrectness would have strung him up for it. Would a serious anti-Semite have assisted Ludwig Wittgenstein and several other prominent Jews in emigrating from Germany, basically saving their lives?
By all means, blame Keynes for his theory and policy prescriptions, not for some offhand stupid remarks he made. It's almost as ridiculous as calling Ron Paul a racist because of a couple of decades old newsletters.