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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 8, Issue 4 (August 1, 1933)

An Economist Impaled

An Economist Impaled.

Iconoclasts have become flooded with material owing to the fact that so many big men of the war have told tales on one another. But, at a time when economists are on a pedestal, room must be found for Mr. Lloyd George's thrust at Mr. J. M. Keynes. In 1915, says Lloyd George, Keynes made the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. McKenna, nervous with anticipations of the bankruptcy of the Allies. Keynes “dashed at conclusions with acrobatic ease. It made things no better that he rushed into opposite conclusions with the same agility.” Fortunately, Mr. Bonar Law struck the idea of mobilising American securities as a backing against American supplies, “and all went well.” Well, that is, for the war; the post-war debt is another question. But Mr. Lloyd George's contempt for Mr. Keynes is brilliantly conveyed in these memoirs. The contempt is mutual. Can both of them be right?