...John Maynard Keynes He was a famous economist born on 5th June 1883. His father was an economics professor at Cambridge. son of a Cambridge economics professor If ever there was a rock star of economics, it would be John Maynard Keynes. Keynes shares his birthday, June 5th, with Adam Smith and he was born in 1883, the year communist founder Karl Marx died. With these auspicious signs, Keynes seemed to be destined to become a powerful free market force when the world was facing a serious choice between communism or capitalism. Instead, he offered a third way, which turned the world of economics upside down. In this article, we'll examine Keynes' doctrine and its impact. (To read about Adam Smith, be sure to check out Adam Smith: The Father Of Economics.) Keynes was ultimately a successful investor, building up a private fortune. His assets were nearly wiped out following the Stock Market Crash of 1929, which he failed to foresee, but he soon recouped. At Keynes's death, in 1946, his worth stood just short of £500,000 – equivalent to about £11 million ($16.5 million) in 2009. His first prediction was a critique of the reparation payments that were levied against the defeated Germany after WWI. Keynes rightly pointed out that having to pay out the cost of the entire war would force Germany into hyperinflation and have negative consequences all over Europe. He followed this up by predicting that a return to the prewar fixed exchange rate sought by the chancellor of the exchequer...
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...The contribution to economics of Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes both have had a major effect on economic thought and many of their ideas are still influential today. This essay will look at the contribution that both men made to economic thought. According to Adam Smith Institute (2012), Adam Smith was born in 1723 in Scotland and is popularly known as the father of economics. His best known work is called “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” which is more commonly known as the Wealth of Nations. It was published in 1776 and in it; Adam Smith outlines his main economic ideas. Many ideas in the book were not ground breaking or original but Smith was the first to put them all together. In the Wealth of Nations (1776) Smith begins with an example of a factory that produces pins which he uses to explain the benefits of specialisation and division of labour. Smith explains how: “One man draws out the wire; another straights it; a third cuts it; a fourth points it; a fifth grinds it at the top for receiving the head” And so on until the pin is finished. Splitting the production of the pins into different operations, would result in more pins being created. Smith believed that 10 workers could produce 48,000 pins a day using specialisation and division of labour. If the workers were to produce pins individually then Smith believed that they would only produce 20 or less pins a day. It was Smiths...
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...Running head: JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES 1 The Most Influential Economist of the 20th Century Lucas Strader Post University JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES 2 The Most Influential Economist of the 20th Century In the history of economics, John Maynard Keynes is of the most influential people. He strongly influenced the economy and became widely recognized while he was still alive. The man who 75 years ago wrote an essay “The Economic Possibilities for our Grand Children” brought very important issues to our attention. Keynes wondered what kind of world our children would live in, and what sort of tools would they need to succeed and be happy. So what do we know about this extraordinary man, and how did his economic views change our lives? In order to know why Keynes was a successful economist, it is important to know where he came from. John Maynard Keynes was born June 5, 1883 in Cambridge England. His father was an economist and a lecturer at the University of Cambridge, and his mother was a local social reformer. With the assistance and coaching of his parents, Keynes was successful throughout his time in school. Many people were not surprised that Keynes became an economist since his father was a professor of economics. He was good at managing his own finances. His investments with foreign money made him a wealthy man. This allowed him to sponsor the classic ballet along with his Russian...
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...John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes CB FBA ([pic] /ˈkeɪnz/ kaynz; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was a British economist whose ideas have profoundly affected the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics, as well as the economic policies of governments. He greatly refined earlier work on the causes of business cycles, and advocated the use of fiscal and monetary measures to mitigate the adverse effects of economic recessions and depressions. His ideas are the basis for the school of thought known as Keynesian economics, as well as its various offshoots. He enjoyed his work at first, but by 1908 had become bored and resigned his position to return to Cambridge and work on probability theory, at first privately funded only by two Dons at the university – his father and the economist et it was not a successful one for him. Keynes's main interest had been in trying to prevent Germany's compensation payments being set so high it would traumatise innocent German people, damage the nation's ability to pay and sharply limit her ability to buy exports from other countries – thus hurting not just Germany's own economy but that of the wider world. Unfortunately for Keynes, conservative powers in the coalition that emerged from the 1918 coupon election were able to ensure that both Keynes himself and the Treasury were largely excluded from formal high-level talks concerning reparations. Their place was taken by the Heavenly Twins – the Judge Lord Sumner and the Banker Lord Cunliffe whose...
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...the 188th member in 2012 Membership of the IMF is required 5 Largest shareholders: France, Germany, Japan, UK, and US John Maynard Keynes and Harry Dexter White were the intellectual founding fathers of the IMF and the World Bank Keynesian Plan - John Maynard Keynes, during the World war years, played a decisive role in the negotiations that were to shape the post-war international economic order. In 1944, he led the British delegation to the Bretton Woods conference in the United States. At the conference he played a significant part in the planning of the World Bank and then MF. White was the chief international economist at the U.S. Treasury. In 1944, he drafted the American plan for the IMF that competed with the British Treasure blueprint drafted by Keynes. Most of White's plan was incorporated into the final acts adopted at Bretton Woods. The IMF was given the role of promoting global economic growth through international trade and financial stability. One of Keynes' most significant roles was as chairman of the Bank Commission. Under his leadership, the Bank articles were drafted rapidly and successfully despite the lack of pre-conference groundwork regarding the organization of the World Bank. Neither Keynes nor White lived to see their visions of the IMF and the World Bank become reality. Both men died of heart attacks, Keynes in April 1946, shortly after returning from the first meeting of IMF and World Bank Boards of Governors in Savannah, Georgia...
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...(Brown) As we have seen here in the past few years, but more so in the last year, the economy is ever changing. Macroeconomics is the backbone of America and without a stable economy we have serious hurdles in front of us to overcome. John Maynard Keynes developed the Keynesian Theory, which has become the foundation of our government’s economic decisions. During the course of this paper I will outline Keynesian Theorists and Monetary Theorists approach to promote long-run macroeconomic stability, the impact of persistent budget deficits on the trade deficit, options available to policy makers when national savings presents opportunity to improve the trade deficit, appraise the position of the supply side as it relates to government deficits and evaluate recent national economic policies as they relate to the magnitude of the trade deficit. In essence, the inner workings and use of macroeconomics as a financial tool of study to determine how a national economy is managed and sustained. To begin, Keynesian theorists approach to promote long-run macroeconomic stability is somewhat unique. Economist who agree with Keynes’ theories believe that we live in the short run, that what occurs in the short run does not mean it will occur in the long run. Keynes’ stated, “In the long run, we are all dead”. Obviously, spending, whether public or government, plus investments would change the output. If output stays the same except increased government spending then the output would increase...
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...J.S.Mill (1806 –1873) John Stuart Mill was a British philosopher andcivil servant. An influential contributor to social theory, political theory, andpolitical economy, his conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control.[2] He was a proponent of utilitarianism, an ethical theory developed by Jeremy Bentham, although his conception of it was very different from Bentham's. Hoping to remedy the problems found in aninductive approach to science, such as confirmation bias, he clearly set forth the premises of falsification as the key component in the scientific method.[3] Mill was also a Member of Parliament and an important figure in liberal political philosophy. Alfred Marshall (1842 - 1924) Alfred Marshall was an Englishman and one of the most influential economists of his time. His book, Principles of Economics (1890), was the dominant economic textbook in England for many years. It brings the ideas of supply and demand, marginal utility and costs of production into a coherent whole. He is known as one of the founders of neoclassical economics. John Maynard Keynes (1883 – 1946) John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes of Tilton was a British economist whose ideas, known as Keynesian economics, had a major impact on modern economic and political theory and on many governments' fiscal policies. Milton Friedman (1912 – 2006) Milton Friedman was an American economist and statistician at the University of Chicago, and recipient...
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...Introduction How did economist get everything so wrong? This question is a great question to ask and if you ask the author of the article that was published on the New York Times in September 2, 2009, Mr. Paul Krugman. His response would be that is the economist own fault and problem to why in 2008 the economy fail and we went on a recession. The reason to why he says that it is the economist own fault to why we went on recession was that the economist thought that they had figured out the perfect economy policy due to their research and mathematical formulas that made them think that they had solved the mystery of a perfect non recession economy. So what I mean is that in a way they thought there research and thoughts were bullet proof of recessions and even worse another great depression. Furthermore, in this article Paul goes into deep detail to why economists are the way they are and also if they would ever change their beliefs in the future. However Paul does mention in this article that there are very few economist that did predict that a recession would happen in the future, but due to the fact of hoe cocky economist were with their formula an research that they actually laughed at the these few economist, but at it is said whoever laughs last laughs better. Article Background In this article Paul gives a total description of how we reached our recession in 2008 and he starts giving out details from the history of economy and how the first great depression...
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...In that part, it was more focused on the battle of ideas between John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich von Hayek, two of the most well-known economists of their time. Keynes could see the faults of free market in the time after the war and that all of those errors could be fixed if the government regulated the economy. However, Hayek thought that the free market would fix itself, with no government control. World War I laid a whole continent to waste and drew attention to the problems of political organization. People were looking for something better during this time and that something came in the form of socialism and communism. Western civilization was fascinated by this idea and started owning or regulating the so-called ‘commanding heights’ of the economy. During the period between two World Wars, the world experienced the collapse of capitalism and each part of the world tried to manage through by adopting either socialism or communism. Socialism promised a more just society, Hayek was more concerned for the poor and equity. He believed that people needed to be free from government interference and that markets work and governments don’t. His ideas were based on a fully functioning function free market system without regulations, which were also the ideas of Ludwig Von Mises. Mises was a libertarian who believed that markets always needed to be free from government meddling and he argued that socialist states cannot be successful because they lack a functioning price...
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...Adam Smith (5 June 1723 OS (16 June 1723 NS) – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment,[1] Smith is best known for two classic works: The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). The latter, usually abbreviated as The Wealth of Nations, is considered his magnum opus and the first modern work of economics. Smith is cited as the "father of modern economics" and is still among the most influential thinkers in the field of economics today.[2] Friedrich Engels (German: [ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈɛŋəls]; 28 November 1820 – 5 August 1895) was a German social scientist, author,political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research. In 1848 he co-authored The Communist Manifesto with Karl Marx, and later he supported Marx financially to do research and write Das Kapital. After Marx's death, Engels edited the second and third volumes. Additionally, Engels organized Marx's notes on the "Theories of Surplus Value" and this was later published as the "fourth volume" of Capital.[1] He has also made important contributions to family economics. Milton Friedman (July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist, statistician, and writer who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three...
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...Forbes.com, Obama has taken our economy back to the discredited Keynesian economics. John Maynard Keynes believed that in order to stimulate the economy, government needed to spend more money and increase deficits, which would in turn rejuvenate the economy and increase production. One journalist writes, “Keynesian economics is the false vision of human action which says the way to promote economic recovery and renewed growth is through increased government spending, deficits and debt. If that sounds nuts, that’s because it is.” (Obamanomics: The Final Nail In the Discredited Keynesian Coffin, 2012) As we have seen, the yearly deficit in the United States is steadily increasing, and there has been no turn around in the deficit as predicted by Keynes. This shows that Keynes belief in restoring the government by increasing deficits has failed. “Keynesian economics arose in the 1930s in response to the Depression. It never worked then, as the recession of 1929 extended into the decade long Great Depression. And it never worked anywhere it’s been tried since then, in the U.S. or abroad.” (Obamanomics: The Final Nail In the Discredited Keynesian Coffin, 2012) The Keynesian beliefs have increased unemployment, raised inflation into the double digits, and greatly increased interest rates. According to Forbes, Obama is spending huge amounts of money, increasing the federal deficit, just as Keynes believed. “Obama’s first major act in office was to pursue the unreconstructed Keynesianism...
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...economy hit their lowest point in 1930. Around that time their president chose to design a dam which would be called the hoover dam.Hoover personally believed that by making the hoover dam, they will provide funding in America and make new jobs for people inn the country. America still use this kind of technique right now to expand their country. The idea to invest in the economy in order to increase their economic growth was John Maynard Keynes . John Maynard's Keynes theory thought if the government invested in it economy it would boost the economy. Ways to make sure this happens are opening new businesses so more people will have jobs, also he thought that the government must lower its interest rates because if they are low organisations can extract bank loans more easily and they can also use these loans to develop more outlets, if organisations continue to take out bank loans. This can be used to increase employees wages so employees can spend more and this will increase the money the economy makes. This is the main reason why John Maynard Keynes made this theory saying that in order for a country to expand, they will have to increase their value in investment. The second country that will be mentioned is Singapore, The economy in Singapore is strong because they have a free market because the government does not have any...
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...Friedrich August von Hayek and John Maynard Keynes have been the focus of a near 100 year long battle regarding how . Time and again, the ideas and theories of Keynes and Hayek have been used to argue for and against the involvement that government has in the fiscal policy making process in the US. Both of them have played roles in the development of American economic policy. Only one of these two men, though, has been accepted as knowledgeable in the halls of government power. And that man is Keynes. As shown in history the theory of the role that government should play in the marketplace from Hayek has been long overlooked. Beginning in the Great Depression era, policy makers in Washington latched on to Keynes’ new theories of stimulating the economy through high levels of government spending. Keynes believed that the government should increase public works projects and stimulus spending which would increase the nation’s aggregate demand, meaning an increase of the total demand for final goods and services. The Great Depression continued on as project after project and program after program failed to yield the results that Keynesians had hoped for. Even when faced with the data that proved the Keynesian theory incorrect, the policy makers argued that spending was just not high enough. On the other side of the argument was Friedrich Hayek, who argued that government planning the economy would never work. As Hayek argued in his book The Fatal Conceit, “the curious task of...
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...bitter struggle in the world of economics between those who believe the market should have complete control of the economy and those who believe that the government should regulate the economy. Two of the most famous and influential economists of the modern world, John Maynard Keynes and Frederick Von Hayek, stand on opposite sides of the battle lines drawn between the two positions. Keynes is a staunch believer of the government intervention and regulation of the economy, whereas his personnel friend and ideological rival Hayek believes in the markets ability to control the economy. The differences in economic theory have spilled over into political debates, heated division within countries, and war. The battle between these two ideologies goes beyond sheer economic theory and spills over into individuals beliefs on how the world should be run and organized. John Maynard Keynes was an English economist who was educated at Cambridge University. He was considered by his peers and elders to have incredible potential as an influential world leader in the field of economics. During the First World War he served as an advisor to the government of the United Kingdom on how to organize their economy in the time of war. Keynes economic theory was based on the fact that in order to be successful an economy needed to be regulated and planned, to an extent, by the government. Based on his theory slight inflation was good, and necessary in order to keep unemployment down. The economy should...
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...Student’s Name Instructor’s Name Course Date Keynes and Hayek Introduction In 1929, the stock market has crashed. John Maynard Keynes, a Cambridge University economist and a government advisor, and Friedrich von Hayek, an Australian professor of economics, introduced two contrasting view points on the economy. Since the end of World War II, their ideas have dominated in the economic science up to date. After World War II, a major question on the government’s appropriate role in the economy has erupted. Keynes established concepts that called for a large role of the government in the economy. He alleged that the government had an obligation to use an approach of boosting the economy during a depression. On the other hand, Hayek felt that the government did not have to intervene during an economic depression because the forces of demand and supply and laissez-faire would bring equilibrium. Keynes’ book called Treatise on Money created a basis on his policies. Hayek, together with Gunnar Myrdal, received the Nobel Prize for economics in 1974 for their pioneering effort on the theory of money and economic variations. Haynes has criticized Keynes’ work in many of his books standing by his principles; for example, in his famous book called Against Keynesian Inflation published in 1974 (Hoover 86). Keynes based his argument on the presence of a central body that could use monetary, fiscal, and other physical mechanisms carefully to ensure a balance in the economy....
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