Eric J. Hobsbawm Quote
Economists whosimply advised leaving the economy alone, governments whose firstinstincts, apart from protecting the gold standard by deflationary policies,was to stick to financial orthodoxy, balance budgets and cut costs, werevisibly not making the situation better. Indeed, as the depression continued,it was argued with considerable force not least by J.M. Keynes whoconsequently became the most influential economist of the next fortyyears - that they were making the depression worse. Those of us wholived through the years of the Great Slump still find it almost impossibleto understand how the orthodoxies of the pure free market, then soobviously discredited, once again came to preside over a global period ofdepression in the late 1980s and 1990s, which, once again, they wereequally unable to understand or to deal with. Still, this strange phenomenonshould remind us of the major characteristic of history which itexemplifies: the incredible shortness of memory of both the theorists andpractitioners of economics. It also provides a vivid illustration of society's
Economists whosimply advised leaving the economy alone, governments whose firstinstincts, apart from protecting the gold standard by deflationary policies,was to stick to financial orthodoxy, balance budgets and cut costs, werevisibly not making the situation better. Indeed, as the depression continued,it was argued with considerable force not least by J.M. Keynes whoconsequently became the most influential economist of the next fortyyears - that they were making the depression worse. Those of us wholived through the years of the Great Slump still find it almost impossibleto understand how the orthodoxies of the pure free market, then soobviously discredited, once again came to preside over a global period ofdepression in the late 1980s and 1990s, which, once again, they wereequally unable to understand or to deal with. Still, this strange phenomenonshould remind us of the major characteristic of history which itexemplifies: the incredible shortness of memory of both the theorists andpractitioners of economics. It also provides a vivid illustration of society's
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About Eric J. Hobsbawm
Hobsbawm was born in Alexandria, Egypt, and spent his childhood mainly in Vienna and Berlin. Following the death of his parents and the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, Hobsbawm moved to London with his adoptive family. After serving in the Second World War, he obtained his PhD in history at the University of Cambridge. In 1998, he was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour. He was president of Birkbeck, University of London, from 2002 until his death. In 2003, he received the Balzan Prize for European History since 1900, "for his brilliant analysis of the troubled history of 20th century Europe and for his ability to combine in-depth historical research with great literary talent."