Dear Eric,

ET > Given that Keynes died more than a year before the passage of the National Security Act of 1947, it seems unlikely that work sponsored by the CIA could have influenced him.

Actually - it is obviously impossible – and so – surely equally obvious that that is not my position?

That Polanyi was CIA funded is not in dispute.  He made public elitist and intellectually relativist stances from 1951 onwards.  The roots of that work seems to lie in the strain of British ideology spelt out by say Collingwood (for instance in “New Leviathan”).  That in turn has close affinities with Keynes’ own thought (see especially “My Early Beliefs”).  Shils seems the most likely conduit for the Polanyi CIA funding.  Shils himself moved away from Popper in favour of Polanyi in the early 1950’s.  Thus my argument is certainly not that the CIA influenced Keynes,  more like, the political ideology of Keynes and his circle influenced the CIA.

I would certainly welcome competent informed criticism of my understanding, on or off group.

Best,

Robert Tye, York, UK