Dr. Gary North gave a talk titled "Keynes and His Influence" in which he recounted the story of the series of exchanges between Hayek and Keynes regarding Keynes's Treatise on Money, which Hayek had spent much time critiquing. According to Hayek, the intellectual debate concluded in an anti-climatic fashion, with Keynes basically shrugging and telling Hayek that he didn't really believe it anyway and that he was onto something else. Thus, when Keynes published his General Theory, Hayek did not bother responding to it. This was a terrible mistake that had unfortunate consequences in the field of economics. Because academic economists expected Hayek to respond, Hayek's silence was interpreted as his inability to refute Keynes's General Theory.
Dr. North went on to say that because Austrian economists had predicted the 2008 financial crisis, they are in a unique position to dismantle the Keynsian mythology once and for all, to finally drive a stake through the heart of that vampire. He cautioned the audience (full of Austrian economists) not to have a Hayekian moment. Instead, he advised Austrians to pick some aspect of Keynes's theory and attack it, using various internet channels, such as youtube, blogs, and websites like LRC, to disseminate the information. Through this intellectual division of labor, he said, we can take down the elephant "one bite at a time."
Incidentally, Dr. North also mentioned this song by Merle Hazard -- Inflation or Deflation.
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