Beyond Gold

Both in the popular mind and in many academic circles, it is said that Hayek and Keynes stood opposed; the one advocating markets, the other statism. But this image confuses the one-off of 'Keynesianism' with Keynes's overall economic approach, and so sets up a false debate. The tragedy is the seemingly permanent dualism this has introduced into economics and practical economic affairs. In this brief study, this history is reviewed by introducing the ideas of Rudolf Steiner into the discussion in order, as it were, to rerun history from 1923 until now with a view to putting the last hundred years back on track so that we can catch up on lost time. 'Beyond Gold' introduces Rudolf Steiner's little-known contribution to economic thought. Through that lens it revisits first 'the Hayekian View', then Keynes's 'unspoken mission'. The author's aim is to show that Hayek, Keynes and Steiner can be seen together on the one 'true' page of modern economic development, each in their different ways pointing to the need for economic life to be grounded on its own logic, but a logic that takes its cues from accounting.