Dear folks,



I would appreciate knowing the exact source of this quote from Keynes - not from the collected works, but from which if his article or book does it come from? Thank you.



Sumitra Shah



"The study of economics does not seem to require any specialized gifts of

an unusually high order. Is it not, intellectually regarded, a very easy subject

compared with the higher branches of philosophy and pure science? Yet

good, or even competent, economists are the rarest of birds. An easy subject,

at which very few excel! The paradox finds its explanation, perhaps, in that

the master-economist must possess a rare combination of gifts. He must

reach a high standard in several different directions and must combine talents

not often found together. He must be mathematician, historian, statesman,

and philosopher—in some degree. He must understand symbols and

speak in words. He must contemplate the particular in terms of the general,

and touch abstract and concrete in the same flight of thought. He must

study the present in the light of the past for the purposes of the future. No

part of human nature or institutions must lie entirely outside his regard. He

must be purposeful and disinterested in a simultaneous mood; as aloof and

incorruptible as an artist, yet sometimes as near the earth as a politician."