Best Selling Books by John Maynard Keynes

The most provocative book written by any economist of Keynes''s generation, propounding a fundamentally new approach that revolutionised economics.

Of the fifteen famous scientists, economists and statesmen sketched in this collection of essays, which was first published in 1933, John Maynard Keynes was directly acquainted with all but three. The unique quality of immediacy in these biographical fragments contributes immensely to our more intimate appreciation of the historical significance of these men. This volume is made up of two parts: The first part, titled Sketches of Politicians, includes chapters on Lloyd George, Bonar Law, Lord Oxford and Sir Winston Churchill. The greater portion of the second part, Lives of Economists, is taken up with the lives of Robert Malthun, Alfred Marshall and F. Y. Edgeworth. All are literature, and the reader needn''t be an economist or a specialist to enjoy the excellent flavor of Keynes'' style of writing.

"A popular lecturer of economics at Cambridge University and editor of the Economic Journal, Keynes made The Economic Consequences of the Peace a major step in his career. It was translated into a dozen languages and sold 100,000 copies in six months. Taken seriously even by those who were opposed to his claims, the book helped lift economics to a new, higher level of recognition and acceptance. This volume, with its insightful portraits of Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau, and Woodrow Wilson, remains one of the great works of political economy of our time."--BOOK JACKET.

John Maynard Keynes is the great British economist of the twentieth century whose hugely influential work The General Theory of Employment, Interest and * is undoubtedly the century''s most important book on economics--strongly influencing economic theory and practice, particularly with regard to the role of government in stimulating and regulating a nation''s economic life. Keynes''s work has undergone significant revaluation in recent years, and "Keynesian" views which have been widely defended for so long are now perceived as at odds with Keynes''s own thinking. Recent scholarship and research has demonstrated considerable rivalry and controversy concerning the proper interpretation of Keynes''s works, such that recourse to the original text is all the more important. Although considered by a few critics that the sentence structures of the book are quite incomprehensible and almost unbearable to read, the book is an essential reading for all those who desire a basic education in economics. The key to understanding Keynes is the notion that at particular times in the business cycle, an economy can become over-productive (or under-consumptive) and thus, a vicious spiral is begun that results in massive layoffs and cuts in production as businesses attempt to equilibrate aggregate supply and demand. Thus, full employment is only one of many or multiple macro equilibria. If an economy reaches an underemployment equilibrium, something is necessary to boost or stimulate demand to produce full employment. This something could be business investment but because of the logic and individualist nature of investment decisions, it is unlikely to rapidly restore full employment. Keynes logically seizes upon the public budget and government expenditures as the quickest way to restore full employment. Borrowing the * to finance the deficit from private households and businesses is a quick, direct way to restore full employment while at the same time, redirecting or siphoning

"The power to become habituated to his surroundings is a marked characteristic of mankind. Very few of us realise with conviction the intensely unusual, unstable, complicated, unreliable, temporary nature of the economic organisation by which Western Europe has lived for the last half century." - CHAPTER I-INTRODUCTORY As the most important figures in the history of economics, the work of John Maynard Keynes is nearly without precedent in the history of economics. THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF PEACE, first published in 1919, achieved great notoriety due of its contemptuous critique of the French premier as well as President Woodrow Wilson. Keynes criticized the Allied victors for signing the Treaty of Versailles in 1920, which would have ruinous consequences for Europe. At the time, few world and economic leaders appreciated his criticisms as Keynes saw his worst fears realized in the rise of Adolf Hitler and the resulting devastation of World War II. JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES, 1883-1946, was born into an academic family. His father, John Nevile Keynes, was a lecturer at the University of Cambridge where he taught logic and political economy while his son was educated at Eton and Cambridge. Most importantly, Keynes revolutionized economics with his classic book, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936). This work is generally regarded as perhaps the most influential social science treatise of the 20th Century, as it quickly and permanently changed the scope of economic thought. Interestingly, Keynes was a central member of the Bloomsbury Group, a collection of upper-class Edwardian aesthetes that served as his life outside of economics, which included Virginia Woolf, Clive Bell, and Lytton Strachey.

Essays In Persuasion, which was first published in 1931, was author John Maynard Keynes'' first volume of collected essays. In it he gathered together various writings on public affairs from 1919-1931, including some extracts from his published books. The essays taken as a whole embody forecasts and recommendations made by the author on a variety of subjects which can now be checked by the course of events. Essays In Persuasion is divided into five sections which deal respectively with (1) The Treaty of Peace, (2) Inflation and Deflation, (3) The Return to the Gold Standard, (4) Politics, and (5) The Future. Whilst a certain proportion of these essays deal with matters which now belong to the past, a considerable number relate to affairs the full course of which has not yet run and where the proposals and ideas set forth still have practical application.

In A Tract on Monetary Reform, which was first published in 1923, British economist John Maynard Keynes argues that the objects of British government should be the stability of trade, price, and employment. The gold reserve should be demonetized. However, this does not mean that gold serves absolutely no purpose anymore. Rather, it is a store of value and a means of correcting the influence of a temporarily adverse balance of payment. "This is a very brilliant as well as a very important book. Like all that Mr. Keynes writers, it is full of matter, and also full of wit...If any argument were wanted to show that whether we like it or not, we must tackle the monetary problem, it is to be found in Mr. Keynes''s book. It is a bright light, and though it may, if misused, do harm to the eyesight of some people, it throws a light, and a true light, on the world''s dilemma."—The Spectator

This new edition of Keynes'' classic text includes a foreword by Paul Krugman.

"The Economic Consequences of the Peace" gave economist John Maynard Keynes a huge but controversial influence on perceptions of the peace treaty signed after World War I. John Maynard Keynes was not only a brilliant economist, but a superb writer with a keen eye for the foibles of the great men of his time. "The Economic Consequences of the Peace" is a must read for anyone interested in the Versailles Peace Treaty and the aftermath of its signing. Even today, the power of Keynes'' argument is evident. Though Keynes admitted that the allies might not hold Germany to all the economic terms of the treaty, he still felt strongly that many of the terms of the treaty, whether enforced or not, discouraged sound planning by German investors, companies, and its government, and unnecessarily impoverished the German people. As pointed out in his classic book, Keynes felt this was bad for not just Germany, but all of Europe.