Re: Minsky's politcal views

["Henry C.K. Liu" <hliu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In the 1920s, most grown people who were serious thinkers were communist
sympathizers, though only activits became party members. The McCarthy
era destroyed the career of a lot of in the American left, and more than
a few former communists became neoconservatives, particularly
Trotskites. In France, pratically every intellectual was communist, and
artists such as Picasso and architect Le Corbusier.  Einstein was a
communist party member in Germany. Harry Dexter White was a communist.
There are as many shades of communists as there are Republicans.  So
what's the big deal?

Henry C.K. Liu

Niggle, Christopher wrote:
>  For what it is worth, I once asked Minsky if he had been a party member -
> it was during a conversation regarding his views on Marx's economics, which
> he thought very insightful, and of other economists of roughly his
> generation such as Larry Klein who had been (I think) communists - and he
> said "no."
>
> Chris
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pdavidso
> To: pkt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Sent: 7/10/2003 8:41 AM
> Subject: Minsky's politcal views
> Importance: Low
>
>
> > ===== Original Message From Barkley Rosser <rosserjb@xxxxxxx> =====
>
> .
>
> > BTW, speaking of Minsky, I recently heard an older
> > somewhat conventional and conservative economist claim,
> > after a few drinks, that Minsky was long a member of the
> > CPUSA. This individual went on at some length regarding
> > the alleged irony of a "card-carrying Communist" making
> > lots of money advising major New York banks. Anybody
> > sufficiently knowledgeable to either confirm or deny this
> > particular rumor?
>
>
> I am not sure of that -- but I believe that Hy gave one or more
> biographical
> sketches in which he discusses his political feelings in the 1930s -- I
> think
> one of these biographical sketches was published in a commemorative
> volume for
> Minsky's retirement from Washington University.
>
> I think Randy Wray or Dimitri P. would know where these biographical
> sketches
> were published.
>
> For those who did not live through the great depression -- it may be
> hard to
> understand how intriguing an alternative conomic system appeared to the
> young
> people growing up when their hard-working fathers were often unemployed
> -- or
> earning so little that they could not pay the rent. I suggest that those
> who
> did not live through those times go to your local video store and rent a
> movie
> called "King of the Hill" which is a true story of young person growing
> up in
> St Louis in the 1930s -- with its Hoovervilles. [By the way, King of the
> Hill
> has a movie actor in it who won the Academy Award this yearfor his
> portrayal
> in The Pianist.]
>
> Paul
>
> Paul Davidson
> Editor, Journal of Post Keynesian Economics
> University of Tennessee
> SMC 503
> Knoxville, Tennessee 37996-0550
> office phone #;(865)974-4221; office fax# (865)974-1686 or (865)974-4601
> home phone and fax # (865)692-0802
> email pdavidson@xxxxxxx
> http://econ.bus.utk.edu/davidsonextra/Davidson.html