Talk:Bretton Woods system/Archives/2020

Latest comment: 4 years ago by Joelauerbach in topic Dubious use of external source


Dubious use of external source

The article states: "According to economic historian Brad Delong, on almost every point where he was overruled by the Americans, Keynes was later proved correct by events." The source for this sentence is: https://web.archive.org/web/20091014073814/http://econ161.berkeley.edu/Econ_Articles/reviews/skidelsky3.html. But Delong's essay does not make the claim stated above. He does mention a few examples that show that "Keynes during World War II knew things that other economists would only rediscover a decade or two later." But this alone does not seem to warrant the description "on almost every point", nor is its relation to the particulars of Bretton Woods clear. Moreover, Delong actually argues that the distance between Keynes and White is in fact much less than sometimes assumed, and he disputes the characterization that Britain was strong-armed by the Americans into the final agreement. I could make this sentence a better summary of Delong's points myself, but I'm not an economist and so I wouldn't know how then to characterize its relation to the rest of the paragraph. And if there is another source to back up the original claim being made, that would also be a possible fix. Can someone knowledgeable about the subject weigh in? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Joelauerbach (talkcontribs) 22:11, 31 July 2020 (UTC)