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In 1913, shortly after he was appointed to the Royal Commission on Indian Currency and Finance, Keynes published his first book, ''Indian Currency and Finance'' <ref name=INDIANCURR>[http://www.archive.org/details/IndianCurrencyAndFinance KEYNES, John Maynard. ''Indian Currency and Finance''. London: MacMillan & Co., Ltd., 1913]</ref> . This book has been referred to as the best in the English language on the gold exchange standard.  By 1919 Keynes was the senior Treasury official sent as part of the British delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference. Keynes disagreed with the harsh terms negotiated at Versailles and, after resigning, returned to England and wrote ''The Economic Consequences of the Peace'' <ref name=ECOCONSEQPEACE>[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15776/15776-h/15776-h.htm KEYNES, John Maynard. ''The Economic Consequences of the Peace''. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920 <small>E-text prepared by Rick Niles, Jon King, and the Project Gutenberg Online</small>]</ref> (1919), a controversial book which argued that the war reparations imposed on Germany could not be paid and turned Keynes a worldwide famous economist. The controversy over the [[Treaty of Versailles]], signed in Paris in 1919, soon subsided because Keynes' predictions almost immediately started to materialize. On 1930 Keynes published his his first major work on economics ''A Treatise on Money'' <ref name=KEYNES2>KEYNES, John Maynard. ''A Treatise on Money''. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co.; 1st American edition; 1930 </ref> which set out his ''[[Wicksellian Theory of the Credit Cycle|Wicksellian Theory]]'' <ref name=WICELLIANHET> [http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/essays/money/cumulative.htm Wicksellian Theory of the Credit Cycle]</ref> of the credit cycle and ignited another controversy. In this two-volume, dense work, full of brilliant insights but incomprehensible as a whole for most students, Keynes attempted, with little success, to improve upon of the Cambridge version of the ''quantity theory of money'', laying out the rudiments of a liquidity preference theory of interest. Keynes's new book came under immediate attack form [[Friedrich von Hayek]] <ref name=HAYEKHET>[http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/hayek.htm Friedrich von Hayek]</ref>, the ''[[laissez-faire]]'' advocate, who wrote a review of the ''Treatise'' <ref name=KEYNES2>KEYNES, John Maynard. ''A Treatise on Money''. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co.; 1st American edition; 1930 </ref> so harsh that Keynes decided to request [[Piero Sraffa|Sraffa]] <ref name=SRAFFAHET>[http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/sraffa.htm Piero Sraffa]</ref> to write a review Hayek's own competing work and condemn it, no less harshly.  The Keynes-Hayek conflict initiated an endless battle in the Cambridge-L.S.E. <ref name=CAMBLSEHET>[http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/hayek.htm Cambridge-L.S.E.]</ref> circuit, its reflexes extending to the present day.
In 1913, shortly after he was appointed to the Royal Commission on Indian Currency and Finance, Keynes published his first book, ''Indian Currency and Finance'' <ref name=INDIANCURR>[http://www.archive.org/details/IndianCurrencyAndFinance KEYNES, John Maynard. ''Indian Currency and Finance''. London: MacMillan & Co., Ltd., 1913]</ref> . This book has been referred to as the best in the English language on the gold exchange standard.  By 1919 Keynes was the senior Treasury official sent as part of the British delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference. Keynes disagreed with the harsh terms negotiated at Versailles and, after resigning, returned to England and wrote ''The Economic Consequences of the Peace'' <ref name=ECOCONSEQPEACE>[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15776/15776-h/15776-h.htm KEYNES, John Maynard. ''The Economic Consequences of the Peace''. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920 <small>E-text prepared by Rick Niles, Jon King, and the Project Gutenberg Online</small>]</ref> (1919), a controversial book which argued that the war reparations imposed on Germany could not be paid and turned Keynes a worldwide famous economist. The controversy over the [[Treaty of Versailles]], signed in Paris in 1919, soon subsided because Keynes' predictions almost immediately started to materialize. On 1930 Keynes published his his first major work on economics ''A Treatise on Money'' <ref name=KEYNES2>KEYNES, John Maynard. ''A Treatise on Money''. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co.; 1st American edition; 1930 </ref> which set out his ''[[Wicksellian Theory of the Credit Cycle|Wicksellian Theory]]'' <ref name=WICELLIANHET> [http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/essays/money/cumulative.htm Wicksellian Theory of the Credit Cycle]</ref> of the credit cycle and ignited another controversy. In this two-volume, dense work, full of brilliant insights but incomprehensible as a whole for most students, Keynes attempted, with little success, to improve upon of the Cambridge version of the ''quantity theory of money'', laying out the rudiments of a liquidity preference theory of interest. Keynes's new book came under immediate attack form [[Friedrich von Hayek]] <ref name=HAYEKHET>[http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/hayek.htm Friedrich von Hayek]</ref>, the ''[[laissez-faire]]'' advocate, who wrote a review of the ''Treatise'' <ref name=KEYNES2>KEYNES, John Maynard. ''A Treatise on Money''. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co.; 1st American edition; 1930 </ref> so harsh that Keynes decided to request [[Piero Sraffa|Sraffa]] <ref name=SRAFFAHET>[http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/sraffa.htm Piero Sraffa]</ref> to write a review Hayek's own competing work and condemn it, no less harshly.  The Keynes-Hayek conflict initiated an endless battle in the Cambridge-L.S.E. <ref name=CAMBLSEHET>[http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/hayek.htm Cambridge-L.S.E.]</ref> circuit, its reflexes extending to the present day.


Finally on 1936 Keynes published his "magnum opus" ''The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money'' <ref name=GENERAL>[http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/texts/keynes/gtcont.htm KEYNES, John Maynard. ''General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, The''. London: Macmillan Press; New York: St. Martin's Press; 1936]</ref> which gave a strong theoretical support to his ideas about the causes of the economic Depression of the thirties and faced the traditional economists theories' which, in his opinion, were recommending policies which actually aggravated the recession. Keynes's concepts were already being implemented, simultaneously and intuitively, by Horace Greely Hjalmar Schacht <ref name=SCHACHT>[http://pdftohtml.markoer.org/pdf2html.php?url=http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~jfrieden/Selected%20Articles/Books/GlobalCapitalism/EconomicPrincipals.pdf  WARSH, David; Editor. ''Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht and
Finally on 1936 Keynes published his "magnum opus" ''The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money'' <ref name=GENERAL>[http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/texts/keynes/gtcont.htm KEYNES, John Maynard. ''General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, The''. London: Macmillan Press; New York: St. Martin's Press; 1936]</ref> which gave a strong theoretical support to his ideas about the causes of the economic Depression of the thirties and faced the traditional economists theories' which, in his opinion, were recommending policies which actually aggravated the recession. Keynes's concepts were already being implemented, simultaneously and intuitively, by Horace Greely Hjalmar Schacht <ref name=SCHACHT>[http://pdftohtml.markoer.org/pdf2html.php?url=http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~jfrieden/Selected%20Articles/Books/GlobalCapitalism/EconomicPrincipals.pdf  WARSH, David; Editor. ''Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht and Other Citizens of the Twentieth Century''.<small> in: www.people.fas.harvard.edu; April 9, 2006</small>]</ref> the minister of economics (1934–37) in the National Socialist government of Adolf Hitler as well as by Roosevelt's  ''New Deal'' in the United States a few years before Keynes's book publication.
Other Citizens of the Twentieth Century''.<small> in: www.people.fas.harvard.edu; April 9, 2006</small>]</ref> the minister of economics (1934–37) in the National Socialist government of Adolf Hitler as well as by Roosevelt's  ''New Deal'' in the United States a few years before Keynes's book publication.


==References==
==References==

Revision as of 13:09, 8 April 2007

<This article is under construction>
For more information, see: Economics.

John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron of Tilton (Cambridge, England, June 5, 1883 - London, England, April 21, 1946) [1] was the son of John Neville Keynes, registrar of the University of Cambridge and eminent logician and economist, and Florence Ada Brown, advocate for the poor, first female Councillor of Cambridge Borough Council, and later mayor of Cambridge. He was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, and began a short career in the civil service, where he was assigned to the India Office from 1906 to 1909. There he acquired an intimate knowledge of the government service. A reorganization of the Economics Department at Cambridge opened up an opportunity for Keynes, who had earlier come under the influence of its head, Alfred Marshall. Resigning from the civil service in 1909 Keynes was elected fellow of King's College and returned to Cambridge. In 1911 he was chosen as editor of the Economic Journal, the publication of the Royal Economic Society and one of the leading professional journals.

Keynes was greatly influenced by Alfred Marshall (1842–1924) who, besides being a brilliant and original theorist, also passionately believed that economics should contribute to human well-being and that economics students should know as much about the economic and social facts of the real world as the theoretical approaches through which they could be organised and understood. Interested in literature and philosophy, Keynes was invited to join the "Apostles" (The Cambridge Conversazione Society) [2], a secret society of dons and undergraduates who met to discuss ethical and political issues. The group included Lytton Strachey, Leonard Woolf, E. M. Forster and Bertrand Russell. Woolf and Russell brought him into contact with leaders of the Fabian Society [3], including Sidney Webb, Beatrice Webb and George Bernard Shaw.

Keynes became one the most important figures in the entire history of economics. He revolutionized economics with his classic book, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money [4] (1936). This is probably the most influential social science treatise of the XXth Century. It changed the way the world looked at the economy and the role of government in society.

Major works published:

In 1913, shortly after he was appointed to the Royal Commission on Indian Currency and Finance, Keynes published his first book, Indian Currency and Finance [5] . This book has been referred to as the best in the English language on the gold exchange standard. By 1919 Keynes was the senior Treasury official sent as part of the British delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference. Keynes disagreed with the harsh terms negotiated at Versailles and, after resigning, returned to England and wrote The Economic Consequences of the Peace [6] (1919), a controversial book which argued that the war reparations imposed on Germany could not be paid and turned Keynes a worldwide famous economist. The controversy over the Treaty of Versailles, signed in Paris in 1919, soon subsided because Keynes' predictions almost immediately started to materialize. On 1930 Keynes published his his first major work on economics A Treatise on Money [7] which set out his Wicksellian Theory [8] of the credit cycle and ignited another controversy. In this two-volume, dense work, full of brilliant insights but incomprehensible as a whole for most students, Keynes attempted, with little success, to improve upon of the Cambridge version of the quantity theory of money, laying out the rudiments of a liquidity preference theory of interest. Keynes's new book came under immediate attack form Friedrich von Hayek [9], the laissez-faire advocate, who wrote a review of the Treatise [7] so harsh that Keynes decided to request Sraffa [10] to write a review Hayek's own competing work and condemn it, no less harshly. The Keynes-Hayek conflict initiated an endless battle in the Cambridge-L.S.E. [11] circuit, its reflexes extending to the present day.

Finally on 1936 Keynes published his "magnum opus" The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money [4] which gave a strong theoretical support to his ideas about the causes of the economic Depression of the thirties and faced the traditional economists theories' which, in his opinion, were recommending policies which actually aggravated the recession. Keynes's concepts were already being implemented, simultaneously and intuitively, by Horace Greely Hjalmar Schacht [12] the minister of economics (1934–37) in the National Socialist government of Adolf Hitler as well as by Roosevelt's New Deal in the United States a few years before Keynes's book publication.

References

  1. ↑ Keyne's full biography. Encyclopedia of World Biography
  2. ↑ Cambridge Apostles (The Cambridge Conversazione Society).
  3. ↑ Fabian Society Homepage
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 KEYNES, John Maynard. General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, The. London: Macmillan Press; New York: St. Martin's Press; 1936
  5. ↑ KEYNES, John Maynard. Indian Currency and Finance. London: MacMillan & Co., Ltd., 1913
  6. ↑ KEYNES, John Maynard. The Economic Consequences of the Peace. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920 E-text prepared by Rick Niles, Jon King, and the Project Gutenberg Online
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 KEYNES, John Maynard. A Treatise on Money. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co.; 1st American edition; 1930
  8. ↑ Wicksellian Theory of the Credit Cycle
  9. ↑ Friedrich von Hayek
  10. ↑ Piero Sraffa
  11. ↑ Cambridge-L.S.E.
  12. ↑ WARSH, David; Editor. Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht and Other Citizens of the Twentieth Century. in: www.people.fas.harvard.edu; April 9, 2006

Bibliography




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