Austerity or stimulus? How Keynes and Hayek shape our economic debate
Wednesday 15 February 2012, 6.00PM
Speaker: Nicholas Wapshott, Journalist and Writer
Experts in Industry
Nicholas Wapshott is a prominent British journalist and writer. He is a Reuters contributing columnist and an online content consultant to a number of media and private clients. He was the editor of The Times Saturday edition as well as the founding editor of The Times Magazine. He has written a number of biographies including those of Margaret Thatcher and Carol Reed. His book Keynes Hayek: The Clash That Defined Modern Economics (published by W W Norton in October 2011) describes the vituperative, ill mannered, and pointed intellectual duel between two of the greatest names in economics that took place eighty years ago and continues to dominate the political debate today: Should governments intervene in the market in an attempt to create jobs and economic growth, or is such manipulation of the economy, however well intentioned, misguided and pointless?
Following the success of Keynes's masterwork The General Theory of 1936 and the widespread use of its lessons by governments - particularly in the three decades following the Second World War, that led to unprecedented prosperity - the work of Friedrich Hayek was little more than a footnote in the story of Keynesianism. However, Hayek's belief - articulated in his best known work The Road to Serfdom (1944) - that the growing size of the state sector that Keynesianism demands trammeled individual rights and invited tyranny, has grown in influence, particularly in recent years. Both Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan were admirers of Hayek and were inspired by him to try to sharply reduce the size of the public sector. Similar Hayekian arguments are being employed by all of the Republicans hoping to become their party's candidate in the impending US election.
Yet Keynesianism remains the dominant economic force across the globe, as governments struggle to cope with the results of the collapse of the stock market and the financial crisis of 2008 to 2009. In his book, Wapshott traces the original bitter argument between Keynes and Hayek 80 years ago, then traces the influence of the two thinkers up to the present day. For once the 'dismal science' can be seen as a passionate personal duel between two giants of political and economic thought that continues to delineate the key difference between parties of the left and right.
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Admission: by free ticket only, available from www.york.ac.uk/tickets. Please note that this lecture is full, but we are operating a waiting list for any tickets returned.
Location: Ron Cooke Hub auditorium
Telephone: 01904 324466