Keynes, John Maynard

(1883-1946)

   British economist John Maynard Keynes was one of the most influential figures in the history of economic theory and had a considerable impact on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. Educated at Eton College and Cambridge University, Keynes worked for the British Treasury, was editor of the prestigious Economic Journal, and was present at the Versailles Peace Conference in 1918. His highly critical study of the peace settlement, particularly the reparations imposed on Germany, was published as The Economic Consequences of the Peace in 1919. In the 1920s, he taught at Cambridge University and published several significant works, including Treatise of Probability (1921), Tract of Monetary Reform (1923), and Treatise on Money (1930). His major work, however, was The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (1936), which offers a damning critique of laissez faire economics and calls for government intervention to regulate the economy, particularly through investment and spending. Keynes wrote to Roosevelt on several occasions and visited the United States in 1934, when he met the president. However, while some of the principles expounded by Keynes were evident in the New Deal, Roosevelt was by no means a total convert. It was only during World War II that Keynesian economics were finally accepted. Keynes worked for the British Treasury during the war, and in 1940 he wrote How to Pay for the War. He was also present at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944 and 1945. His influence on modern-day economics is still heavily debated.