John Maynard Keynes

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The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.

—JM Keynes

John Maynard Keynes.
The dismal 'science'

Economics

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John Maynard Keynes, Baron Keynes was an economic theorist whose work dominated pre-World War Two economic theory, during which it reached its maximum expression. In contrast with the Austrian School of Hayek and Mises, and the Chicago/monetarist schools associated with Milton Friedman, both of which advocate for economic freedom and came to be dominant in the 1980s with the rise of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher and "supply side economics."

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[edit] Economic theory

Broadly speaking, Keynesian economics calls for higher marginal tax rates during "boom" periods, both to damp economic extravagance and to build up a "nest egg," or "rainy day fund," and to then use those funds for public spending during "bust" periods, in order to buffer the working and middle classes from the disasters wrought by the "masters of the universe" and their money games.

Because of his focus on tax reductions for the poor and middle class, and an increase in government spending on infrastructure, conservative economists consider him akin to a socialist and/or Satan, but in reality he was not the antichrist or an advocate for the destruction of private property, but of a "subtle" control of it, and the application of his theory has led to the Social Democratic "Welfare State." Hard-core right-wingers are therefore bound to use the communist label at all times; it's a label that is misguided at best, as Keynes was a capitalist through and through, and sought not to destroy it but save it from itself (his book The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money was written during the Great Depression, after all). Monetarist libertarians may prefer the softer-sounding "statist." More intellectual right-wingers have a more sophisticated straw-man to attack Keynes with. To them, the word "Keynesian" means, "Spend shitloads of money for no reason and never stop!" However, it should be noted that this could possibly be applied to Keynesian economists, highlighting the differences between Keynes's economics and Keynesian economics. [1]

Christian conservatives like to paint him as launching the age of godless commy-ism in the US as he was an atheist and denounced Christianity as "hocus pocus." This is ironic considering staunch free marketeers like Hayek and Friedman were also non-believers. The wingnuts also like to portray him as an enemy of family values because of his bisexuality. However, he stopped indulging in buggery after his marriage.

Keynes was also known for his uncanny prescience. He attended the 1919 Paris Peace Conference as a member of the British treasury and estimated that the reparations imposed on Germany by the French and the British were on the order of ten times what it could ever hope to pay. He warned that the reparations would cause Germany's economy to collapse and possibly lead to political upheaval not just in Germany, but the entirety of Europe. He was roundly ignored, and then guess what happened?

The idea that the economy is driven by aggregate demand rebutted the then orthodox Say's Law. Free market-oriented economists argued that the market will always return to equilibrium and reach employment in the long run and that the government should do nothing lest it lengthen the natural return to equilibrium or enact programs that would lead to socialism. Keynes' reply to this was essentially "In the long run, we are all dead." Libertarians often take this out of context to mean that Keynes was denigrating the idea of saving money, which is a misinterpretation at best and a quote mine at worst. Keynes simply argued that too much savings at one time would create the paradox of thrift—money hoarding by everyone at the same time due to low consumer confidence became a negative feedback loop and made recessions even worse.

Keynes was in correspondence with Franklin Delano Roosevelt as well around the time his General Theory was published. In 1937, America's GDP had reached pre-crash levels, though unemployment was still lagging. FDR had actually run in 1932 as a fiscal conservative, blasting Hoover for his spending. While FDR's first term was marked by a pragmatic approach that broke from any fiscal conservatism, he became sympathetic to conservative calls for austerity measures. (Sound familiar?) Keynes warned him that though the economy had recovered to a great degree, it was too fragile to shift gears just yet. FDR ignored him and raised taxes and cut spending to balance the budget while having the Fed run a contractionary policy. This resulted in the Roosevelt Recession of 1937-1938. FDR reversed his policies and instituted "The Third New Deal" (the first two taking place in his first term), and whaddya' know, the economy started to turn around again.

Keynes also debated openly in written correspondence with Austrian school economist FA Hayek, which has been immortalized in a music video rap battle.[2] His record was tarnished to some degree by the buttloads of money he lost in stocks in 1929, but he later became even richer playing the market during the Depression. Toward the end of World War II, he argued in favor of a world central bank and currency. Although no one knows what would have happened if his plan had won out over Harry Dexter White's, his criticisms of the White Plan (which led to the World Bank) came to bear, giving us further evidence that Keynes was receiving inside information from a time traveler.

Although Keynes' ideas lost ground during the latter half of the century with the rise of Milton Friedman, the Chicago school, stagflation, and Reaganomics, 2008 to who knows when has already been dubbed "The Keynesian Resurgence" due to the abandonment of strict free market schools in favor of revisiting Keynes' work.

He died in 1946, pronouncing these last words: "I only wish I had drunk more champagne."[3][4]

[edit] Misrepresentation of Say's Law

Keynes popularized a misrepresentation of Say's Law that has entered popular discourse. Jean-Baptiste Say's original formulation meant that the total demand in an economy would never fall below or exceed supply. This was then reformulated as "supply creates its own demand" by James Mill, though Keynes is most often associated with this re-statement of Say's Law.[5]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Footnotes

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