“One of the great growth industries of the English-speaking world is the exegesis of the writings of John Maynard Keynes. What exactly did Keynes say? When did he say it? Who were his precursors? What did he really mean? What should he have meant? What would he be saying if he were alive today?” I wrote these words many more years ago than I like to think. Since then this industry has grown still further, spurred by the financial crisis. Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat business secretary in Britain’s coalition government, wrote an article in the January 17 issue of the New Statesman entitled “Keynes would be on our side”. The following week, the economists David Blanchflower and Robert Skidelsky published a riposte, talking of “the foolhardy project of enlisting Keynes on behalf of the coalition’s policy”.
“英语国家发展最为兴旺的行当之一就是注解约翰•梅纳德•凯恩斯(John Maynard Keynes)的作品。凯恩斯究竟说了些什么？什么时候说的？他继承了哪些人的思想？他究竟是什么意思？他应该是什么意思？如果他今天还活着会怎么说？”许多年前（时间久远到我现在都不愿去回想），我曾写下如上的文字。自那以后，这个行当在金融危机的刺激下又得到了进一步的发展。英国联合政府的商务大臣、自由民主党人文斯•凯布尔(Vince Cable)在1月17日的《新政治家》(New Statesman)杂志上发表了一篇文章，题为《凯恩斯会站在我们这边》(Keynes would be on our side)。一周后，manbetx20客户端下载 学家戴维•布兰奇弗劳尔(David Blanchflower)和罗伯特•斯基德尔斯基(Robert Skidelsky)撰文进行了反驳，称“为联合政府的政策披上凯恩斯的外衣是莽撞之举”。