The Theory of Idle Resources: A Study in Definition

A telling attack on Lord Keynes' concept of unemployment - first published in 1939, now revised and updated. -- Lord Keynes' concept of unemployment came under telling attack in 1939 with the publication of this book. Now the noted economist, W.H. Hutt, reviews his original work in a new introduction and updates the text. In updating his text, he retains the original chapters, but adds notes and comments that form appendices to each of them. Professor Hutt writes in the pre-Keynesian classical economics tradition. When this book first appeared, he wrote: "My reason for using the term 'idleness' instead of 'unemployment' is that the latter term has, by tradition, become associates with the idleness of labor, and any satisfactory study must obviously be concerned with 'idleness' in all resources." But that 1939 text explicitly excluded discussion of what many economists (both before and following Keynes) considered to be the important 'problem' of idle money. As recession or depression emerged, it all seemed due to a general failure to buy everything produced, and it was felt that 'money hoarding' or 'idle money' had to share the blame. The Author corrects this lapse in the first edition with an addendum on the subject. A pioneering classic, Professor Hutt's book will continue to provoke controversy - and serious thought - for years still to come.