Keynes May Only Succeed in Becoming the Academic Idol of Our Worst Cranks and Charlatans; His Book May Become the Economic Bible of a Fascist Movement

Especially critical of The General Theory were many of the leading members of the Chicago school of economics. Henry Simons, for instance, writing in the Christian Century (July 22, 1936) argued that Keynes "gives us a theory of unemployment, interest and money which attains generality by being about nothing at all." His solutions to the problem of economic depressions ran "in terms of a great and curious variety of expedients … intended to demonstrate that wise governmental policy must deal directly with many particular [market] relationships," with little thought as to whether government has the ability to actually master all the problems involved. He concluded that Keynes "may only succeed in becoming the academic idol of our worst cranks and charlatans — not to mention the possibilities of the book as the economic bible of a fascist movement."

--Richard M. Ebeling, "The Keynesian Revolution and the Early Critics," in Monetary Central Planning and the State (Fairfax, VA: The Future of Freedom Foundation, 2015), Kindle e-book.