John Maynard Keynes: (Great Thinkers in Economics)

Now that every politician is calling for Keynesian remedies isn't it time for you to learn what Keynes's analysis is all about? The current global economic crisis has been caused by the de-regulation of financial markets over the last three decades. Yet, orthodox economic theory during this period provided the rational for this political belief in the desirability of free efficient markets. This volume explains how, after the collapse of financial markets in 1929 led to the Great Depression, John Maynard Keynes, the greatest economic thinker of the 20th century, developed an alternative analytical framework to this orthodox theory. Keynes's alternative theory explains why this free efficient market theory is not, and cannot be, applicable to the entrepreneurial, market-oriented system in which we live. Instead, with unregulated or under-regulated markets the economy will be extremely volatile. Booms (investment bubbles) are likely to be followed by catastrophic collapses. In the absence of positive government action, long periods of economic stagnation could follow. To avoid these catastrophic collapses and periods of stagnation, Keynes indicated that governments have two important roles to play. First governments must develop institutions, rules, and regulations that maintain the stability and liquidity of financial markets, domestically and globally. Second, the government must take whatever action necessary to make sure that the full employment of resources are continuously utilized in producing desirable and productive goods and services. Only then can we eliminate the two outstanding faults of our entrepreneurial system -- (1) the failure of the system to provide full employment and (2) the arbitrary and inequitable distribution of wealth and incomes.

Table of Contents:
An Introduction to Keynes and his Revolutionary Views How the Great War and its Aftermath Affected Keynes's Thinking Keynes's Middle Way Liberalism is Truly a New Way The Before and After of Keynes's General Theory The Conceptual Difference between Keynes's General Theory and Classical Theory - Savings and Liquidity Further Differentiating Keynes's Aggregate Demand Function The Importance of Money, Contracts and Liquid Financial Markets World War II and the Post War Open Economies System Classical Trade Theiory vs. Keynes's General Theory of International Trade and International Payments Reforming the World's Money Inflation Keynes's Revolution: The Evidence Showing Who Killed Cock Robin

About the Author :
PAUL DAVIDSON is Editor and co-founder of the Journal of Post Keynesian Economics. He is the author, co-author or editor of 18 books and more than 220 published professional articles. He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers University, University of Bristol (UK), and the University of Tennessee. He has also held Visiting Professorships at University of Nice, Institute For Advanced Studies (Vienna), and University of Strasbourg, He has been the Associate Director of the Economics Division of Continental Oil company, a member of the Brookings Economics Panel, and consultant to numerous organizations including Resources For the Future, Energy Policy Project (Ford Foundation), central Bank of Ecuador, Central Bank of Venezuela, Central Bank of Uruguay, and the Interamerican Institute of Capital Markets, Federal trade Commission, Western Union Telegraph Company, Chase Econometrics Associates, State of Alabama, New York State Consumer Protection Agency, Federal Trade Commission, and the U.S. International Communications Agency (USIA and USIS).