The 1931 Kahn Multiplier Creation Myth: Its Incorporation in the 2019 Elgar Companion to John Maynard Keynes Demonstrates the Universal Belief of the Economics Profession in Mythology

Abstract

The myth, that R. Kahn developed the mathematical and logical theory of the multiplier and then taught J M Keynes about the technical and mathematical properties of the multiplier concept is a myth deeply inbedded in the economics profession. It then leads to another myth that without Kahn’s contribution, there would have been no possibility of Keynes having been able to write and publish the General Theory in February, 1936. This myth, like the myth that there is no IS-LM mathematical model in the General Theory, can be traced directly to deliberate canards originally made up by Joan Robinson repeatedly in her life time and also presented many times by G L S Shackle in his publications. The historical facts are quite different from the concocted mythology. The technical and mathematical properties of the multiplier concept were first developed and applied by Keynes in 1921 in chapter 26 of the A Treatise on Probability in section seven on page 315 in footnote 1. Kahn himself made it quite clear in his 1936 response to H. Neisser in the Review of Economics and Statistics that he had gotten most of his ideas from Mr. J.M Keynes!!!! In 2007. Kent showed that Keynes had constructed an arithmetical, numerical, multiplier example in May,1929. This analysis follows directly from the mathematical and technical exposition contained in 1921 in chapter 26 of the A Treatise on Probability in section seven on page 315 in footnote one, which Kent had and has no inkling of. The current universal belief among economists that Kahn developed the theory of the multiplier himself before he explained it to Keynes in 1932 is simply a fable agreed upon unanimously by an economics profession that has been “played” for ninety years by the fairy tales, yarns, fables, canards, claims, and stories spun by Joan Robinson and supported by the Pseudo Kynesians (Joan Robinson, Austin Robinson, Richard Kahn and Roy Harrod). The appearance of these myths as historical facts in the 2019 book published by Edward Elgar, titled The Elgar Companion to John Maynard Keynes, seriously calls into question the claims of economists to being a science. By definition, there can’t be any myths in a scientific enterprise. That these myths have endured for so many decades does provide evidence that economics is not a science, but simply a type of rhetoric based on the accepted “wisdom” of fairy tales or stories made up by Joan Robinson. The economics profession has incorporated these myths into their official history of economic thought and macroeconomic history, as can easily be seen by visiting Investopedia or Wikipedia. These myths go hand in glove with other myths about Keynes, such as the myth that an 18 year old Frank Ramsey showed up in Cambridge in 1921 and convinced Keynes that his logical theory of probability, based directly on the work of the greatest mathematical logician in history, George Boole, was full of errors and mistakes that then led Keynes to renounce his theory and accept some version of Ramsey’s approach.