This is a transcript of Lord Skidelsky’s address from his lecture on the lessons Keynes can offer today’s left, part of PEF’s series of public lectures on macroeconomic issues. The event marked the launch of his latest work Money and Government: A Challenge to Mainstream Economics. He argues:
“I would emphasise Keynes’s warning that bad economics produces political extremism. By bad economics I mean allowing financial markets to dictate what happens to economies. By good economics I mean recognising the duty of governments to protect their people – even the inefficient ones – against misfortune, insecurity, and calamity. By good economics today I mean an economics which, while allowing a wide field for decentralised decision-making, insures against catastrophe, takes heed for the future, and responds to the popular demand for fairness.”
