Quotessence
Home / Books / Hayek: A Life, 1899–1950

Hayek: A Life, 1899–1950

Book by Bruce Caldwell · 1 quotes · Hayek, Keynes, Mathematics

Filter quotes by topic

AllHayekKeynesMathematicsRoad To SerfdomAmicabilityBooksConfusionContractionDepressionExpansionMisesMonetaryMoneyPublic OpinionReactionsTriangles

Hayek: A Life, 1899–1950 Quotes

“The Marshall Society talk was doubtless interesting, but probably not altogether pleasant for Hayek. Some forty-odd years later, Joan Robinson in her Ely Lecture talked about how Hayek had “covered the blackboard with his triangles” and about the “pitiful state of confusion” within economics that his talk, in retrospect, represented. In her recounting, Kahn had “asked in a puzzled tone, ‘Is it your view that if I went out tomorrow and bought a new overcoat, that would increase unemployment?’ ‘Yes,’ said Hayek. ‘But,’ pointing to his triangles on the board, ‘it would take a very long mathematical argument to explain why’” (Robinson 1978a [1972], 2–3). In his own reminiscence, Kahn (1984) observed: “It is only fair to Hayek to mention that he had to condense four lectures into one, and that they were written when he had a high temperature” (182).”

MathematicsConfusionTriangles
Book:Hayek: A Life, 1899–1950
Create image