On Monday 18th November, PEF and Lord Skidelsky hosted a discussion with Giorgio La Malfa on ‘Keynes for Today‘.
Historian and economist Giorgio La Malfa (Former Minister of European Affairs and Former Minister of the Budget and Planning, Italy), has recently completed a new Italian translation of John Maynard Keynes’ General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. This was the main focus of the day’s discussion, with La Malfa arguing that Keynes’ ideas were needed to save the economy.
Martin Wolf (Chief Economics Commentator, Financial Times) then gave comment describing Keynes as “a brave prophet” who cannot be ignored and emphasising Keynes as a political thinker as well as an economist. Wolf went on to argue that while free trade had done “enormous good” that “capital controls of some kind” are needed.
This was followed by a lively Q&A session chaired by Lord Skidelsky in which questions were raised on globalisation, the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, the Euro and full employment.
