Lew and Robert: Perhaps Tyler Cowen can gain some insight into the distinctions between Keynes and the Austrians from a reading of Keynes’s foreword to the 1936 German edition of his General Theory. Keynes acknowledged that his theory might “expect to meet with less resistance on the part of German readers than from English.” He added that “The theory of aggregate production, which is the point of the following book, nevertheless can be much easier adapted to the conditions of a totalitarian state than the theory of production and distribution of a given production put forth under conditions of free competition and a large degree of laissez-faire. . . Although I have. . . worked it out with a view to the conditions prevailing in the Anglo-Saxon countries where a large degree of laissez-faire still prevails, nevertheless it remains applicable to situations in which state management is more pronounced.”
Jawohl! Keynes’s own words may help to explain why Mises moved from Austria during this period, instead of sticking around Vienna to experience “the conditions of a totalitarian state.”
[I thank the late historian, James J. Martin, for having brought this information to our attention.]
