Money and Finance

A Candidate for The Most Misused Quote of All Time

"In the long run we are all dead." - John Maynard Keynes

The irony in Keynes' quote is not just that it is so often misinterpreted, but that it is generally misused in a way to defend a point that is the complete opposite of what Keynes was trying to say. The full quote (and description) goes as follows:

"The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the storm is past the ocean is flat again."

-- A Tract on Monetary Reform (1923) Ch. 3; many have thought this meant Keynes supported short terms gains against long term economic performance, but he was actually criticizing the belief that inflation would acceptably control itself without government intervention.

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Another description:

-- A quote attributed to John Maynard Keynes, as a catch phrase in his rebuttal to laissez faire economics, as proposed by Adam Smith. The idea is that rather than "in the long run, everything will even out", that "in the long run, we're all dead", so we should aggressively push to rectify economic problems (within our lifetimes), rather than just letting everything work itself out.

- Links
The world’s greatest investors: John Maynard Keynes [H/T CIO] (LINK) Related previous post: John Maynard Keynes' change in investment philosophyA Conversation With Robert J. Shiller (video) [H/T CIO] (LINK) Related books: Irrational Exuberance...

- The State Of Long-term Expectation
Chapter 12 (“The State of Long-Term Expectation”) of John Maynard Keynes’ The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money is one that seems good to go back and re-read every now and then. Jeremy Grantham mentioned it in his interview with Charlie...

- Steve Keen On The “from Alpha To Omega” Podcast
The “From Alpha to Omega” podcast recorded the following interview with me about the “Modern Debt Jubilee”. We discuss a lot more than just that–starting with why people who are interested in Hyman Minsky’s work should NOT read Stabilizing...

- How Keynes Was The Warren Buffett Of His Day (video)
April 27 (Bloomberg) -- David Chambers, lecturer at the University of Cambridge, discusses investment tips from a past master - John Maynard Keynes. ………. Link to paper: Keynes the Stock Market Investor ……………….. Related previous post:...

- Keynes: One Mean Money Manager - By Jason Zweig
No one is a Keynesian now—at least not among money managers. And that is a shame. A new analysis of the investment performance of John Maynard Keynes proves that the famous economist also was one of the greatest investors of the past century. By understanding...

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