The Truth of Liberal Economy: Jacques Rueff and John Maynard Keynes

This book provides historical, theoretical, and biographical  perspectives on two giants of contemporary economics, Jacques Rueff  (1896-1978) and John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946). The former French  bureaucrat and academician championed classical economics; the latter  British economist founded macro-economics criticizing the classical  school. Depending upon archival sources, including personal  correspondences between the above two figures, the book describes  furious debates between them and surrounding them.
In fact, the two  economists proposed contrasting diagnosis over almost every event in  contemporary world economy: the reparations problem, the Great  Depression, the gold exchange standard, and the Bretton Wood System.  Keynes appraised managed currency to cope with unemployment, criticizing  the classical gold standard; Rueff believed the function of market  mechanism, blaming the state intervention. The book highlights deep  influence of Rueff, rather larger than Keynes, in Europe before and  after WWII.
The perspective of the book reaches today’s economic  issues. The classical view of Rueff was shared in Mont Pelerin Society, a  cradle of neo-liberalism. Rueff’s market-friendly view paved way to the  neo-liberal reforms which took place after the 1980s. The classical  market theory of Rueff, together with dialogues with the labor unions,  prepared the social background of the European Union. This book thus  reveals the truth of liberal economy, from the 20th to 21st centuries.