Reuters Hosts Keynes-vs.-Hayek Debate in New York

Economic commentators still can’t talk about clashing views of the financial crisis without referencing John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek. At Reuters, Nicholas Wapshott, author of a new book on the two 20th-century economists, says their personal hostility was unmatched. “That snarky disagreement was so vicious and ill-mannered that one old-school economics professor described it as ‘the method of the duello’ being ‘conducted in the manner of Kilkenny cats.’” James Galbraith and Nobelist Edmund Phelps, economic writers representing both sides, will slug it out in a live-debate, Tuesday-evening webcast from New York.