Re: smartness

[Brad De Long <delong@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Again we see the old Keynes quote out of context. The original sense was
> that if we waited for the economy to work itself out of an depression,
> "in the long run" as was advocated by the right, we would all be dead by
> the time it happened, i.e., it wouldn't happen.
>
> The rest of the article, however, is right on.
>
> Rod
>
>
> Leo Huberman (via Louis Proyect) wrote:
> Keynesian economics, by its very nature, has very little interest in the
> long-term problems of capitalism. "In the long run," Keynes himself once
> wrote, "we shall all be dead."

Why is there this extraordinary--eager--desire to take Keynes's quote
out of context?

Brad DeLong

--

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"Now 'in the long run' this [way of summarizing the quantity theory
of money] is probably true.... But this long run is a misleading
guide to current affairs. **In the long run** we are all dead.
Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in
tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the storm is long
past the ocean is flat again."

--J.M. Keynes
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
J. Bradford De Long; Professor of Economics, U.C. Berkeley;
Co-Editor, Journal of Economic Perspectives.
Dept. of Economics, U.C. Berkeley, #3880
Berkeley, CA 94720-3880
(510) 643-4027; (925) 283-2709 phones
(510) 642-6615; (925) 283-3897 faxes
http://econ161.berkeley.edu/
<delong@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>