Yikes: Famous Historian Issues Apology After Making Controversial Statements on John Maynard Keynes & Gay People

Noted historian Niall Ferguson apologized Saturday after claiming that John Maynard Keynes was gay and without children and therefore didn’t really care about future generations.

“I should not have suggested – in an off-the-cuff response that was not part of my presentation – that Keynes was indifferent to the long run because he had no children, nor that he had no children because he was gay,” Ferguson said in a statement posted to his website, adding that they were "as stupid as they were insensitive."

“This was doubly stupid. First, it is obvious that people who do not have children also care about future generations. Second, I had forgotten that Keynes’s wife Lydia miscarried,” he added.

The statement continues:

My disagreements with Keynes’s economic philosophy have never had anything to do with his sexual orientation. It is simply false to suggest, as I did, that his approach to economic policy was inspired by any aspect of his personal life. As those who know me and my work are well aware, I detest all prejudice, sexual or otherwise.

My colleagues, students, and friends – straight and gay – have every right to be disappointed in me, as I am in myself. To them, and to everyone who heard my remarks at the conference or has read them since, I deeply and unreservedly apologize.

But what did he actually say about Keynes? Financial Advisor offers some details:

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.

[…]

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.

You may recall that Keynes once famously said, “In the long run, we are all dead."

Ferguson, by his own admission, obviously missed big in his bumbling attempt to explain the Keynes “long run” mindset. What are the chances he'll be able to live this own down?

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Featured image Eamonn McCabe.