Keynes Versus Hayek: on the Appropriateness of Government Intervention in Markets

Özet

In keeping with the pattern of the last century, today we observe staunch and oftentimes vociferous oppositionto even the prospect of state intervention in the market place to either curtail recessionary downturnsor mitigate the corollaries of market failure. To whom or to what is this knee-jerk revulsion to governmentinterference attributable? Is it justified? And what is the role of government in the contemporaryeconomy? Figures that have dominated this hemisphere of thought include free-market advocates such asFriedrich von Hayek. On the other end of the spectrum, personalities like John Maynard Keynes challengedfundamentally the idea that market economies will automatically adjust to create full employment, in theprocess setting the parameters of a debate that rages on into the contemporary era.