World Affairs
John Maynard Keynes
1883-1946

John Maynard Keynes, an English native, professed economic concepts that form the headwaters of economic theory for many outstanding economists who succeeded him and is a testament to the magnitude and influence of his ideas.

A youth of prodigious intellect, Keynes attended King’s College to study mathematics, and it was here that his interest in economics began.

Keynes started a lectureship on economics that was funded by Alfred Marshall, and after being refused by Cambridge many times, he vowed a ban to build his reputation as an economist. Keynes' expertise was called upon after World War I as an adviser to the British chancellor of the Exchequer to the Treasury of Financial and Economic Questions where his responsibility was to design credit terms between Britain and its allies during the war.

After his promotion in 1919 to the Senior Treasury Official, he resigned to write his first book entitled Economic Consequences of Peace, in which he criticized President Woodrow Wilson as being a "blind, deaf Don Quixote" and France's Georges Clemenceau as a xenophobe with "one illusion — France, and one disillusion — mankind" for their insistence that Germany pay war reparations.

In 1936, he published his most important book, A General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, which revolutionized economic theory by showing how unemployment could occur involuntarily and how governments should engage in deficit spending to make up for the economic slowdowns caused when businesses reduce their investments.

In 1934, Keynes paid a visit to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, where he was unsuccessful in persuading the president to engage in deficit spending to bring America out of its economic tailspin. It was not until the U.S. entered World War II that Roosevelt, having decided that he had no choice, reversed his long-held position of a balanced budget to one of using deficit spending to kick start the economy.

The English economist died on April 21, 1946.

Sponsors of U-S-History.com:

Sponsor this site