W. H. Hutt was a preeminent and persistent critic of the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes. In The Keynesian Episode, he presents a comprehensive review of Keynes’s General Theory, including the finest critique to date of the Acceleration Principle. He questions the very legitimacy of Keynes’s fundamental epistemology.
In Hutt’s discussion of economics there is a refreshing emphasis on the vital importance of the market price system as a coordinating process. As Dr. Hutt wrote: "The intellectual developments for which Keynes’s General Theory appeared to be responsible had caused a setback to scientific thinking about human economic relations at a crucial epoch. Keynes tried to find in the factors determining the value of the money unit the genesis of output and income. . . . He linked monetary theory to the economic world only through unsatisfactory concepts such as employment, income, and effective demand."
In this unsparing analysis of the theories of John Maynard Keynes, W. H. Hutt explains why Keynes’ ideas attracted both practical politicians and ardent academics and why they do not square with the logic of long-accepted laws of economics. Professor Hutt outlines methods by which modern economies can extricate themselves from the disasters into which Keynesian theory has plunged them.
The book, as well as Hutt's other writings, is marked by a persistent and welcome emphasis on the vital importance of the market price system as a coordinating process.
— Reason
W. H. Hutt
William Harold "Bill" Hutt (1899 – 1988) was an English economist who described himself as a classical liberal.
Hutt attended the London School of Economics (LSE) where he earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree under the "leading influence" of Edwin Cannan. After his 1924 graduation from LSE, Hutt worked for a publisher until 1927. It was during this period that Hutt wrote his first published essay, entitled "The Factory System of the Early Nineteenth Century" (1926).
Rather than wholly removing himself from academia upon the completion of his undergraduate degree, Hutt remained immersed in the LSE culture, attending LSE classes informally until March 1928, when he accepted a position as senior lecturer at the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa. In 1930, Hutt was promoted to "Chair of Commerce" at UCT. Later, Hutt would be named "Dean of the Faculty of Commerce."
In his writings on collective bargaining, including his first book, The Theory of Collective Bargaining (1930), Hutt disputed the commonly held position that labor was at a disadvantage in bargaining with employers, an idea which some had used to justify organized violence by trade unions. He also argued against the idea that the labor market consists of a "bilateral monopoly." Although Hutt argued vehemently against what he considered to be injustices committed by trade unions, he did not advocate their outright abolition.
Hutt later became known as a leading voice in the academic community condemning South African apartheid. He vehemently objected to the policy, arguing in his 1964 critique, The Economics of the Colour Bar, that it was little more than a means by which white labor unions used the government to outlaw black competition.
He was a member of the Mont Pelerin Society and of the Philadelphia Society. Hutt's work has been notably praised by George Selgin and Nobel laureate James M. Buchanan.[
In his 1936 book "Economists and the Public" he coined the now famous concept "consumer sovereignty".