Ȁȇȅ Partʺ: Economics[T]he phrase “willingness to demand” ... simply means “willingness to
supply”! (ȀȈȆȃ, p.ȁȆ)
[W]hen there is a “shortage” or rationing, we usually say that “demand
exceeds supply,” although what we really mean is that, at the price asked,
morewouldbe demanded if more were supplied. Hence I cannot con-
ceive of any situation in which ... the value and amount demanded in
any market fails to equal the value and amount supplied.... [P]eople
whowould beprepared to demand at the price asked if they could get
the goods are prevented from demanding. (ȀȈȆȃ, pp.ȇǿ–ȇȀ)
[C]onsumption is always theexterminationof power to demand. Ļe
failure of the Keynesians to understand this simple truth lies at the root
of what I believe to be the most outrageous intellectual error of this age.
(ȀȈȆȈ, p.ȂȃȀ)Hutt often covered himself against challenge by qualifying apparently
egregious propositions with cryptic phrases that are hardly understandable
unless the reader is already familiar with his terminology and allusions. For
example,
It is quite wrong to assume that unfavorable prospects can deter net accu-
mulations, otherwise than through the discouragement of saving prefer-
ence, or—indirectly—through the encouragement of the withholding of
capacity (although such prospects certainly do influence theformtaken
by accumulation). (ȀȈȆȈ, p.ȂȃȈ)A similar habit was to mention government policies not always straight-
forwardly but rather with reference to the results that Hutt would expect
them to have. Ļus, in an historical context: “not a single governmen-
tal step toward multiplying the wages flow was taken” (italicized inȀȈȆȈ,
p.ȅȀ), meaning, approximately, that the government did not act against
the unions.ŠŔő şőŘŘŕŚœ śŒ ŕŐőōş
Besides his terminology, tone, and paradox-mongering, other circum-
stances help explain why Hutt’s work has received less attention than
Keynes’s. Although theGeneral Ļeorywas not Keynes’s best-written
book, it does contain flashes of clever writing and appealing new con-
cepts and terminology. Keynes presented his message as revolutionary,
offering young or adaptable economists the opportunity to march at the