John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) is perhaps the foremost economicthinker of the twentieth century. On economic theory, he ranks with AdamSmith and Karl Marx; and his impact on how economics was practiced,from the Great Depression to the 1970s, was unmatched.The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money wasfirst published in 1936. But its ideas had been forming for decades ? asa student at Cambridge, Keynes had written to a friend of his love for'Free Trade and free thought'. Keynes's limpid style, concise prose, andvivid descriptions have helped to keep his ideas alive - as have thenovelty and clarity, at times even the ambiguity, of his macroeconomicvision. He was troubled, above all, by high unemployment rates and largedisparities in wealth and income. Only by curbing both, he thought,could individualism, 'the most powerful instrument to better thefuture', be safeguarded. The twenty-first century may yet prove himright.In The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919), Keynes elegantly and acutely exposes the folly of imposing austerity on a defeated and struggling nation.
