>Lots of folks were soft of
>Stalin and nonetheless did good work.
Don't forget Keynes's creepy intro to the German edition of The General Theory <http://www.blancmange.net/tmh/articles/foregt.html>:
>The theory of aggregated production, which is the point of the
>following book, nevertheless can be much easier adapted to the
>conditions of a totalitarian state [eines totalen Staates] than the
>theory of production and distribution of a given production put
>forth under conditions of free competition and a large degree of
>laissez-faire. This is one of the reasons that justifies the fact
>that I call my theory a general theory. Since it is based on fewer
>hypotheses than the orthodox theory, it can accommodate itself all
>the easier to a wider field of varying conditions. Although I have,
>after all, worked it out with a view to the conditions prevailing in
>the Anglo-Saxon countries where a large degree of laissez-faire
>still prevails, nevertheless it remains applicable to situations in
>which state management is more pronounced. For the theory of
>psychological laws which bring consumption and saving into
>relationship with each other, the influence of loan expenditures on
>prices, and real wages, the role played by the rate of interest-all
>these basic ideas also remain under such conditions necessary parts
>of our plan of thought.