Rethinking the Welfare State

On this day, Nov. 11, in 1942, New Zealand, Australian, Indian, South African, Free French and British troops won the second Battle of El Alamein, finally forcing the great German general Erwin Rommel to retreat out of Africa. The tide of war had turned. Churchill wrote later: “Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat.”But even before Alamein, economists were beginning to plan for a victorious peace. Apart from John Maynard Keynes, the most notable and influential of the planners was his friend...