Keynes: The Twentieth Century's Most Influential Economist
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Review
`Peter Clarke's biography could not be more timely or stimulating ... We almost feel Keynes's mind tick ... Superb. *****' --Sunday Express
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In the midst of our current economic crisis, we peer anxiously over the precipice into an uncertain future, and try to put things in perspective by looking to the past. One name above all keeps on cropping up; often there is a grainy picture of a tall man with thinning hair and a heavy moustache, a half-familiar figure from a former era of worldwide economic depression - an era that closed when the Second World War peremptorily intervened. The name of John Maynard Keynes first came to public attention on both sides of the Atlantic in the early 1920s, when the depression in Britain engaged his attention, with the argument that unemployment needed a radical remedy. This was a direct attack on the orthodoxy of the free-market doctrines of the day, with their reliance on the self-acting mechanisms of the Gold Standard and Free Trade to do the trick - in the long run. No, said Keynes, coining one of his most famous phrases: 'In the long run we are all dead.' It is a measure of Keynes's apotheosis that it was President Nixon who said in 1971 that 'we are all Keynesians now', but slowly the name of Keynes lost its gilt; his thinking was dismissed as 'depression economics', irrelevant in a booming economic world. And then came the great meltdown of 2008. Incomprehensibly the market forces, on which the rising generation had been taught to rely, failed to deliver the goods, failed to offer self-correction and failed to cope with a self-inflicted crisis of confidence. For thirty years Keynes's reputation had languished; in thirty days the defunct economist was rediscovered and rehabilitated. Engaging and authoratitive, Keynes explores the often misunderstood man in the context of his own life and times - the impact of his homosexuality and his later marriage to ballerina Lydia Lopokova - and questions the relevence and significance of his groundbreaking ideas today.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
BETTER TO READ KEYNES DIRECTLY,
By King Brosby (England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Keynes: The Twentieth Century's Most Influential Economist (Hardcover)
I did'nt enjoy this book. It feels to me like a book written to exploit interest in Keynes following the 2008 financial debacle. I was disappointed with the quality of the writing , with the sketchy biography and with the inadequate discussion of Keynes's ideas in the context of the financial maelstrom.
Peter Clarke is a historian. The main text is 180 pages. It's split into 2 main parts: Keynes's life, and his economic policy and thought. Though I've said Clarke is a historian, the book seemed to perk up when changing from the life to the economics. Keynes was a wonderful writer, and I was continually dismayed that Mr Clarke fails to reach a similar standard. Basically, I recommend that, if you want to know what Keynes said about recession and how to get out of it, then read Keynes's "Essays in Persuasion". If you want to know Keynes's mature (later) thought, read his "The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money". If you'd like more feel for aspects of Keynes's life and achievement, read Milo Keynes's "Essays on John Maynard Keynes". For me the really interesting question now is "to what extent is Keynes outdated when we're confronted by a financial tsunami as in 2008"? Let me say immediately that Keynes was a tremendously impressive thinker. But Mr Clarke doesn;t have much to say about the relationship between Keynes and the present maelstrom. The book doesn't mention derivatives, it doesn't discuss financial architecture (unless fleeting references to bancor qualify), it rarely refers to the theoretical problems of openness as opposed to closed economies. There is no mention of global trade imbalances. There is no mention of China and India. There is no mention of behavioural psychology (which, being a theory about crowd behaviour, could provide a link between the irrational features of markets and the economy). Not only do financial markets exhibit irrational exuberance, and the converse, but the financial bubbles (and anti-bubbles) are reflected/mirrored in the real economy. You're beginning to get to the heart of the problem when you recognise these realities, and when you begin to create monitoring and policing systems that can tackle the various aspects of disequilibria.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but a little too light.,
By
This review is from: Keynes: The Twentieth Century's Most Influential Economist (Paperback)
I enjoyed reading this book. The first chapters are an interesting overview of Keynes's life, written in quite a racy style, (I thought)and giving a handy, if short,overview of the various aspects of Keynes the man.The later chapters of the book are mainly concerned with Keynes's economics. They are quite an easy and informative read, but I was sometimes left with the feeling that, 'there was just not enough meat in the sandwich', though writing that might be unfair - the author does not set up this short book as a detailed analysis. I coupled my purchase of this book with Robert Skidelsky's, 'Keynes: The Return of the Master'. I thought that the two complemented each other very well and if you buy this volume, then I would recommend that you also buy the other.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
short and sweet,
By Feyd (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Keynes: The Twentieth Century's Most Influential Economist (Hardcover)
Great little book on Keynes, very engagingly written, only took a couple of evenings to read. Most of it felt fresh even though ive quite recently read Lord Skidelsky's very comprehensive biography. Clarke looks at the same events but from a different angle, sometimes choosing quotes that suggest an alternative perspective to the one Skidelsky takes. For example, whereas Skidelsky repeatedly describes Keynes as a man of the centre who was more comfortable talking to left leaning conservatives rather than moderate lefties, Clarke suggests that Keynes sympathies were maybe left of centre, using a 1935 quote from the man himself where Keynes advised that on some issues he was to the left even of labour. Unlike other recent books on Keynes like Davidson's "Keynes Solution", there is only a small proportion of the book that illustrates the relevance of Keynes idea to our current situation, but then this is much more a biography than an economics book. Cant really fault it except to say I wish it wasnt so short!
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