On Sep 19, 2007, at 11:45 AM, Michael Perelman wrote:
> This is a long tradition in economics that stretched back from Adam
> Smith to Alfred
> Marshall: express noble sentiments about the future of the working
> class along with
> contempt when ordinary people fail to behave appropriately.
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 19, 2007 at 11:39:31AM -0400, Doug Henwood wrote:
>>
>> On Sep 19, 2007, at 10:55 AM, Ted Winslow wrote:
>>
>>> In fact, this appropriation of Moore and of the tradition to which
>>> the particular idea of the "Good" belongs makes Keynes's conception
>>> of the "ideal commonwealth" very like Marx's, a fact that explains
>>> his claim that "the republic of my imagination lies on the extreme
>>> left of celestial space."
>>
>> Except Keynes was a total snob and racist. Need I quote the classics?
Oh yes, I forgot this bit, which is in Bret Benjamin's interesting new book on the World Bank and the "cultural turn" - Invested Interests. I'm running my interview with him on the radio tomorrow.
Keynes was very annoyed that there were so many countries outside the imperial core that were invited to the Bretton Woods conference. He listed the 21 which "have nothing to contribute and will merely encumber the ground" - among them Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, the Philippines, and Luxembourg (!) - "the most monstrous monkey-house assembled for years."
Doug