Brace yourselves, ladies. (
Other people, just hang on.) He is the first economist to take into account
housework,
houseplants, and
pets. This is the man who made
economics, sexy. You heard me, so listen.
He's a seducer, this man. Don't let the dry humor and the grey hairs fool you, listening to one of his lectures, (let alone, watching his videos or reading his books) masks the sly look and feel -- "I could have you, you know. Any one of you....I just have to ask. I know about sex..I'm a cattle farmer, and sex is my business...Every sip of milk you drink is the result of (very much thwarted) sex. Beef is negated sex, or sex that didn't pan out.We don't have much sex, we Highlanders, but mind me...I've been to India, another great cattle country, and they have sex down. Just remember..." And he'll tell another great story about Canada, or being Scotch, or the fact that the sporran is, literally, "where the money is"... And you’d read his bright eyes and the long limbs (he's 6'8" with everything 10% larger than normal -- or so he says) and think: regimental? Oh, yes, and oh yes, and very much so. And money, mere money, doesn’t seem so frightening or complex, it's as delicious as new bread, as alive as new Angus calves from good cows, as glittering as silver coins and diamonds ever falling from the hands of Fortune...and, whatever he's selling, deficit spending, the modern corporation, socialism, whatever, you'll never forget and (at least temporarily) believe.
And I remember. He's about a hundred years old, and going to die any day now, and he's more an apologist for what has happened than what might happen, and my liking for him is based more on a wistful groupie wish he'd rumple my hair and call me 'lassie' than anything I've read...and still, give me his latest book and I'll believe and believe and believe...
No one lives forever. Neither did Neo-Keynesism. But my heart isn't going to forget it, him, whatever...
Update! And this is merely heresay, but...um...I ran this by a fellow at Yale who listened to my puzzlement. His only comment was: "So he ran a cattle ranch?"
"Well a farm, really. But yes, with cattle."
"Gentleman farmer, or hands-on?"
"Oh very much the latter."
"From the Sixties or so?"
"Maybe before. So what does this have to do with him being...like that, far older than most men?"
"Ah...teleny. I've been a doctor's son, in cattle country. Most cattle in this country is on one kind of hormone treatment or another, and you don't know how many young guys we've had to pull out of trouble because they figured what was great for their bulls was good enough for them."
"But...that's kind of Faustian. It's just borrowed time. I mean, steroids eventually turn you into a steer."
"But, by then, he was ninety years old...."