Things you cannot say

Harvard historian Niall Ferguson writes about John Maynard Keynes:

It is simply false to suggest, as I did, that his approach to economic policy was inspired by any aspect of his personal life.

He was apologizing for earlier remarks, which were criticized here and here. It concerned the quote:

The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the storm is past the ocean is flat again.

Of course we expect peoples' policy preferences to be influenced by their personal lives. That is why last year's political campaign talked about the lives of the presidential candidates.

So why would anyone say something so ridiculous?

Some questions are politically untouchable, where I cannot get the truth from professors, and so I have to figure it out for myself. I am adding this issue to the list.