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Biography:
John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) was an English economist who became one of the
most important figures in American economics. Keynes was a many-sided person who
had written about mathematical probabilities (including a book which was
described by Bertrand Russell as "impossible to praise too highly"), acquired an
impressive fortune through trading on international securities and currencies,
worked in government service, served as the chairman of a life insurance company,
collected modern art, and did much more.
Very early on Keynes became widely known, even to non-economists, because of his opposition to the Treaty of Versailles, arguing that its economic consequences made it impractical. Although he served as Deputy for the Chancellor for the Exchequer on the Supreme Economic Council, but he personally did not have the power to make decisions and see that his views became policy. His opposition to the treaty made Keynes unpopular with the British government, but his predictions that the staggering reparations demanded from Germany would lead to economic collapse, nationalism and even militarism proved to be correct.
Men will not always die quietly. For starvation, which brings to some lethargy and a helpless despair, drives other temperaments to the nervous instability of hysteria and to a mad despair. And these in their distress may overturn the remnants of organization, and submerge civilization itself in their attempts to satisfy desperately the overwhelming needs of the individual. This is the danger against which all our resources and courage and idealism must now cooperate.
During the economic crises of the 1920, Keynes argued that conservative economic policies were largely to blame for the continuing social and financial problems because, contrary to common perception, there were no self-correction mechanisms which would lift an economy out of a prolonged depression. Keynes also argued that because individual consumers had so little buying power relative to the larger markets, they could not be the cause of economic booms or depressions.
The real causes, therefore, were to be found in the policies of governments and business investors. Thus, when there is a depression, no one should wait around until consumers spend more and make things better. Instead, there should be increased public and private investments. Keynes' most important work discussing these ideas was The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, publised in 1935.
The thirty year boom in the economies of the Western industrialized world from 1945 through 1975 has been called the "Age of Keynes" because of his influence in the development of those countries' economic policies. Keynes influenced the development of "New Deal" policies under the Roosevelt administration and later he played an important role in the Bretton Woods Conference of 1944 where the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development were created.
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Related Resources:
What are Political and Legal Philosophy
The Philosophy of Politics and the Philosophy of Law are often studied separately, but they are presented here jointly because they both come back to the same thing: the study of force. Politics is the study of political force in the general community, while jurisprudence is the study of how laws can and should be used to achieve political and social goals.What is Philosophy?
What is philosophy? Is there any point in studying philosophy, or is it a useless subject? What are the different branches of philosophy - what's the difference between aestheitcs and ethics? What's the difference between metaphysics and epistemology?
