Ȁȇȃ Partʺ: Economicswhole wage and price level is too high in relation to the nominal quan-
tity of money or, in other words, because the nominal money supply has
become too small for the wage and price level.
ŔšŠŠ ’ş şŠťŘő śŒ ōŞœšřőŚŠ
Readers must wish that Hutt had done what he did not do, namely sys-
tematically present the doctrines he considered rivals of his own in their
strongest versions, criticize them in adequate detail, and show just how
they fail where his succeeds. We know Hutt disliked Keynesianism; it
would be interesting to know in some detail what he thought about mon-
etarist reasoning and evidence.
Hutt’s failure to make his position clear on crucial issues, together with
the writing style that is largely responsible, brings to mind his own com-
plaint (for example, inȀȈȆȈ, Prologue) about how little scholarly dialogue
his work had elicited, particularly from Keynesians. (Consider, also, the
harsh review of HuttȀȈȆȃby Herschel Grossman,ȀȈȆȅ, someone who I
think would be sympathetic to much of Hutt’s message if it were presented
clearly.)
Hutt’s exposition is a collection of discursive and often cryptic remarks.
Strewn over hundreds of pages (inȀȈȆȈ, for example), and in no readily
intelligible order, we find bits of positive analysis, jabs at Keynesianism,
historical allusions, policy proposals, and autobiographical asides. Hutt
had a habit of latching onto remarks by other writers as they were appar-
ently cast up at random by his own reading, even if those writers were not
leading or typical authorities or controversialists on the points at issue,
and then using their remarks as pegs onto which to string his own obser-
vations. Ļis habit gave his writing an unnecessarily polemical tone. (As
PejovichȀȈȆȇnoted, Hutt had a normative bent and seemed not particu-
larly concerned with non-normative analysis of allocations generated by
alternative institutional arrangements.)
Strewn through Hutt’s writings are echoes of long-standing obses-
sions, including, of course, his obsession with labour unions. Another
concerns Britain’s return to the gold standard inȀȈȁȄat the prewar par-
ity, requiring internal deflation if that parity were to remain workable.
Repeatedly, though often in cryptic language, Hutt offered apologetics
for that policy. He might even have been right, but the way that these
apologetics kept intruding in unlikely places and with a moralizing tone
is characteristic of his style.