read the whole thing at http://www.juancole.com/2013/05/conservative-fergusons-muslims.html
The Conservative Logic of Fergusons Smears of Gays, Muslims, Obama and Krugman
Posted 05/05/2013 by Juan Cole
Harvard historian Niall Ferguson apologized Saturday for having said that economist John Maynard Keyes did not care about future generations because he was gay and had no children.
The question I want to raise here is the over-all logic of Fergusons underlying reasoning. What makes him continually make embarrassing and simple errors of fact, as with his attack on Obama last summer, which Newsweek did not bother to fact-check before publication.
I would argue that the reason that conservatives like Ferguson hate Keynes is that Keynes demonstrated conclusively that when the economy goes into a deep recession or depression, the only way to get back out of it is for the government to increase spending. Contemporary conservatives do not want to admit that government plays an indispensable set of economic roles. They want to believe that the corporations can get along just fine without the state. Economists and economic historians often take money from corporate interests to address them or even write studies that flatter their prejudices. Paul Krugman once wondered, after the 2008 meltdown, why so many academic and professional economists are so anti-Keynesian, given the impressive record of correct prediction attendant on the Keynsian enterprise. I am more cynical. I dont have to guess. I think some, or many, are corrupted by the big money that flows from upholding the independent role of capital and from belittling government efforts.
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Hans Howe 