Harvard Professor (Niall Ferguson) Trashes Keynes For Homosexuality

[DanTex]

I found this link through Paul Krugman's blog. If this actually happened, then Harvard should fire Niall Ferguson.

Harvard Professor and author Niall Ferguson says John Maynard Keynes' economic philosophy was flawed and he didn't care about future generations because he was gay and didn't have children.

Speaking at the Tenth Annual Altegris Conference in Carlsbad, Calif., in front of a group of more than 500 financial advisors and investors, Ferguson responded to a question about Keynes' famous philosophy of self-interest versus the economic philosophy of Edmund Burke, who believed there was a social contract among the living, as well as the dead. Ferguson asked the audience how many children Keynes had. He explained that Keynes had none because he was a homosexual and was married to a ballerina, with whom he likely talked of "poetry" rather than procreated. The audience went quiet at the remark. Some attendees later said they found the remarks offensive.

It gets worse.

Ferguson, who is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University, and author of The Great Degeneration: How Institutions Decay and Economies Die, says it's only logical that Keynes would take this selfish worldview because he was an "effete" member of society. Apparently, in Ferguson's world, if you are gay or childless, you cannot care about future generations nor society.

This takes gay-bashing to new heights. It even perversely pins the full weight of the financial crisis on the gay community and the barren.

...

http://www.fa-mag.com/news/harvard-professor-gay-bashes-keynes-14173.html

[enlightenment]

1. Gads.

I didn't think that overblown fool could get any worse. The fact that Harvard keeps him in an endowed chair says a lot about the institution - none of it good.

[Eleanors38]

2. Not only offensive, but a tin-horn amateurish argument.

What a comment to drag around for the rest of one's career. Hopefully, he won't suffer it too long.

[winter is coming]

3. Okay, so now that the austerity fans have taken a hit, his big

argument for discrediting the work of Keynes was his sexual orientation?

If you want to claim Keynesian economics is a bad idea, you'd better use something better than personal attacks.

[LuvNewcastle]

4. Apparently Prof. Ferguson thinks there isn't

enough procreation going on. I think the greater danger to society is people who have kids without giving enough thought to how they'll care for them, without any consideration of the planet we all share. Childless people are looked upon as selfish in many cultures, including our own, when they should be celebrated.

[byeya]

5. The only thing, imo, that can be said against Keynes economic theories is that they weren't

implemented fast enough and didn't include enough public ownership of basic societal needs. Keynes was right and the Fergusons of the world can't come up with anything to discredit the performance of Keynes policies that have been tried and proven successful.

Harvard is also happy with Dershowitz.

[Half-Century Man]

6. A question/observation...I don't know what this is

Niall Ferguson has a problem with "Queer eye on economics guy" is a professor at Harvard. Ted Cruz is an....interesting fellow in Texas politics, who seems to think that somehow Canada might be a little remembered state; went to Harvard. Reinhard & Rogoff are two Harvard professors of ECONOMICS, who can't correctly use one of the most common spreadsheet programs on the planet.

Harvard does have a MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT, correct? At least, someone there teaches arithmetic, right? I thought Harvard was a well respected top notch university. It's not a "well thought of university", the same way Lawrence "Yogi" Berra is remembered as a great orator is it? Did I miss something?

[cali]

7. Harvard can't just fire him. He has tenure and it would take a lot more than this

to boot him.

Furthermore, he's said stuff equally offensive in the past. he's a pig.

[Posteritatis]

9. It's like there's a rule requiring major schools to have at least one Titanic Dumbass on staff..

When I was doing my MA, a prof in the psych department down the hall was a right-out-in-the-open white supremacist who started pushing that angle after getting tenure. He died about a year ago and it was fascinating seeing how awkwardly-worded the school's press releases on it were.

Kind of embarrassing to be anywhere near, but it does protect a lot of better people at least.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. And the accusation about being childless may be aimed at Krugman too

Richard Yeselson ‏@yeselson

To reiterate point I made last night: Ferguson's repulsive remarks about Keynes also likely directed at childless Keynesian, Paul Krugman.

https://twitter.com/yeselson/statuses/330692439675392001