Robert Skidelsky

   In recent years some monetary economists have voiced scepticism about aspects of the Keynesian revolution, particularly the importance of the 1936 General Theory relative to Keynes’s entire corpus.1 These sceptics have performed a valuable service by encouraging more whole-hearted Keynesians (including the author of this chapter) to look carefully at Keynes’s earlier work, notably the 1930 Treatise on Money. Arguably, the Treatise is in many ways a better guide than the General...

   LONDON – “Enough is enough,” proclaimed British Prime Minister Theresa May after the terrorist attack on London Bridge. Now, it is clear, almost half of those who voted in the United Kingdom’s general election on June 8 have had enough of May, whose Conservative majority was wiped out at the polls, producing a hung parliament (with no majority for any party). Whether it is “enough immigrants” or “enough austerity,” Britain’s voters certainly have had enough of a lot. But the...

Waarom werken we nog zo veel? Zou de introductie van een basisinkomen de huidige economie op zijn kop kunnen zetten? Wie hebben er de afgelopen eeuw geprofiteerd van onze toegenomen productie? Rethinking Economics NL ondervraagt Lord Robert Skidelsky, professor economie aan de Warwick University, over het werkvraagstuk.

Lord Robert Skidelsky (United Kingdom), Member of the House of Lords, United Kingdom Parliament. НА РУССКОМ: https://youtu.be/807CLOTwd7E

  In this paper, a transcript of an address given at the 2016 Keynes Conference in Turin, I unpick the various elements of Keynesian revival in economics and explore how different schools of economists have disagreed on which aspects of Keynes’ thought are relevant to modern economic theory. Finally, I conclude with four thoughts on the relevance of Keynes for how one does economics. There has been a modest revival of interest in Keynes after the collapse of 2008-2009 and the...

  Emmanuel Macron’s decisive defeat of Marine Le Pen in the French presidential runoff was a major victory for liberal Europe. But it was a battle, not a war. The idea that one in three French citizens would vote for the National Front’s Le Pen was inconceivable only a few years ago. Commentators have affixed the “populist” label to the wave of demagogic politics sweeping Europe (and much of the rest of the world). But, beyond the raucous style common to populists, what do these...

Since the global financial crisis in 2008, policymakers were having trouble finding the correct measures to pull the world economy out of the slump. Quantitative easing? Fiscal austerity? Neither seem to have fully achieved their anticipated outcomes. Is this due to flaws in today’s prevailing economic thinking? On Thursday 13th of April, Room for Discussion has the honour of discussing this question with special guest Lord Robert Skidelsky. Mr. Skidelsky is an economic historian, famous...

   LONDON – Clearly, the last word has not been said about the chemical weapons attack on Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib Province, Syria, on April 4, which left 85 dead and an estimated 555 injured. But three points – concerning responsibility for the attack, the United States’ military response to it, and the episode’s effect on the course of Syria’s civil war – need to be made. First, all governments lie, not congenitally, but when it suits them and they think they can get away with it....

LONDON – Nothing so riles Western opinion about Russia today as its law on foreign agents. Enacted in July 2012, the law requires all non-commercial organizations (NCOs) engaged in (undefined) “political activities” to register with the Ministry of Justice as “carrying functions of a foreign agent.” A follow-up measure in 2015, the Undesirable Organizations law, required any such NCO to identify itself publicly as a “foreign agent.”The wording is peculiar and significant. What, after all, are...

LONDON – The question of the West’s relationship with Russia has been buried by media stories of hacking, sex scandals, and potential blackmail. The dossier by former British spy Christopher Steele about US President Donald Trump’s activities in Moscow some years ago may turn out to be as credible as the claims that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction – or it may not. We simply don’t know. What is clear is that such stories have distracted attention from the task of bridging...