The torch has to be carried on

11 Jun, 2023 at 11:05 | Posted in Economics | Comments Off on The torch has to be carried on

I was on a one year sabbatical leave at Cambridge University, King’s College by invitation of Professor Wynne Godley in the year 1988/89. Seriously speaking I was surprised, because except for Godley there were only few economists left at the Faculty, who called him-/herself Keynesian. The old guard of Keynes’ disciples had disappeared: Joan Robinson and Nicholas Kaldor were no longer alive; Richard Kahn very fragile.

Furthermore, the chairs of the old Keynes-guard were taken over by upcoming and increasingly dominating neoclassical economists of whom Frank Hahn at Churchill College was the most prominent at that time. Fortunately, there were still some Keynes-scholars left as tutors at the Colleges, who gathered ‘dissenters and critical realists’ for evening seminars, but with waning influence on the teaching at the Faculty.

I felt that I had to look around for more Keynes-scholars. Fortunately, I knew Vicky’s name and her two books: Monetary Theory and Policy and Macroeconomics After Keynes. So, I wrote her a letter (no e-mails at that time) and asked if I could come and see her in London. She responded immediately ‘by all means come and join us for the coming seminar organized by the newly formed Post Keynesian Study Group’ …

The importance of this initiative for Post-Keynesian scholars cannot be exaggerated because this informal network of ‘dissenting economists’ became a safe haven for the development of realistic macroeconomic theory and later, with strong support from Vicky and Sheila Dow, with increased focus on macroeconomic methodology …

With Vicky’s death I have lost a great mentor and a dear friend. I am reasonably sure that Vicky would have turned to me and said: “Jesper, don’t be sentimental, the torch has to be carried on.” And so it will in deep respect of Vicky’s legacy.

Jesper Jespersen