On Stephen Marglin’s post, I meant to indicate that Hansen’s ‘heretical tendencies’ referred simply to his conversion to Keynesian ‘heresies’ after previously rejecting them. The following (also from my article on “How Keynes Came to America” in the Galbraith volume edited by Michael Keaney) perhaps explains better:
  
By the fall of 1937 it was clear to all that the economy was in decline. Morgenthau infuriated Eccles (a tireless advocate of public spending) by declaring that this was proof that deficits cause recessions through their adverse effect on business confidence. He placed his faith in the driving force of private enterprise. By contrast, Barber (1996: 111) states that the recession was a conversion experience for Alvin Hansen who had reacted adversely when the Keynes’s General Theory first appeared. In a paper to the Academy of Political Science, November 1937, before the depth of the recession could be fully appreciated, he began to rethink his position. He wrote:
        "We are currently witnessing a rapid shift in income-creating expenditures both public and private. The props which have been lifting the level of consumption are being withdrawn. The automobile boom has tapered off. We are moving toward a saturation point in installment sales. The government stimulus to consumption is in process of being completely withdrawn in a dramatic reversal from a plus of three billion to a minus of four hundred million dollars within a single year. The full force of this sudden change upon our recovery has perhaps not been adequately appraised." (Hansen, 1938: 66)


________________________________________
From: Societies for the History of Economics [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Marglin, Stephen [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2014 3:23 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [SHOE] Galbraith's writing voice

Dear Professor Sandilands
Your characterization of Hansen as revealing (previously held) heretical tendencies once he had tenure at Harvard doesn't fit with what I know about him: I rather believe that he was more influenced by Keynes's General Theory to change his mind.  I'd be curious as to what people who know more than I do about Hansen's life believe to be the case.
Steve Marglin

-----Original Message-----
From: Societies for the History of Economics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Roger Sandilands
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2014 5:21 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [SHOE] Galbraith's writing voice

This reminds me that Galbraith's close friend Lauchlin Currie told me that Harvard only appointed Alvin Hansen to the Littauer chair in 1937 because of his apparently very orthodox credentials. They were discombobulated when from his secure position he then revealed his heretical tendencies (teaming up with Currie to make a joint presentation before the TNEC to explain the fiscal causes of the 1937 recession).



Roger Sandilands



________________________________
From: Societies for the History of Economics [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Ric Holt [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2014 5:36 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [SHOE] Galbraith's writing voice

In January 1955 Galbraith gave testimony before the Joint Committee on the Economic Report for 1955, titled "Fiscal Policy and the Economic Prospect." The 1950s was a grand decade for Galbraith where he turned from just publishing one co-authored book up to the age of 41 to publishing a plethora of them. It was also the decade where he truly found his "writing voice." Below is a short piece from his testimony that shows that voice we all know. It's amazing what tenure will do.  He finally was awarded tenure in November, 1949 at Harvard after a difficult struggle for the second time -- and his cheerful but sardonic voice never stopped after that for another fifty years. Luck us.
Ric Holt

"Let me turn now to two or three specific questions on which the Committee has asked for suggestions. (I pass over some of these because I am not sufficiently informed. Thus I have never been sure that I fully understand the doctrine of percentage depletion, although what I have heard of it sounds very nice. It would seem to me important that it be promptly applied to professors. There is no group where depletion of what is called intellectual capital proceeds so immutably and leaves a more hideous void. Surely we should be permitted to deduct from our taxes each April an allowance for this annual deterioration. I am told that Powers models have an analogous case.)"