12 quotes
Keynes is not just for the foxhole, but for the emerging world order.
John Maynard Keynes: The Return of the Master (2009)
Keynes's economic philosophy is thus made up of three interdependent parts: his technical macroeconomics, his embattled political philosophy and his ultimate ethical purpose.
John Maynard Keynes: 1883-1946: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman (2003)
In ethics Keynes was a Platonist, in politics he was an Aristotelian. His ethics pointed him towards the ideal; his politics towards moderation.
John Maynard Keynes: The Return of the Master (2009)
Keynes was an applied economist who turned to inventing theory because the theory he had inherited could not properly explain what was happening.
John Maynard Keynes: 1883-1946: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman (2003)
All epoch-defining events are the result of conjunctures - the correlation of normally unconnected happenings which jolts humanity out of its existing rut and sets it on a new course.
John Maynard Keynes: The Return of the Master (2009)
Keynes's idea was very simple. Monetary and fiscal policy should have a single goal, jointly pursued, of maintaining a full employment level aggregate demand.
John Maynard Keynes: The Return of the Master (2009)
To understand the crisis we need to get beyond the blame game. For at the root of the crisis was not failures of character or competence, but a failure of ideas.
John Maynard Keynes: The Return of the Master (2009)
What started Keynes on the road to the Keynesian Revolution was the incomplete British recovery from the depression of 1920 to 1922.
John Maynard Keynes: 1883-1946: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman (2003)
If one machine can cut necessary human labor by half, why make half of the workforce redundant, rather than employing the same number for half the time? This would be possible if the gains from automation were not mostly seized by the rich and powerful, but were distributed fairly instead.
We advocate a Universal Basic Income, received by all citizens on an unconditional basis: that is, detached from the labor market. This offers a choice between work and leisure. To offer such a choice is both a fruit of an affluent society and a solution to the problem of technological unemployment.
It was his sense of the precariousness of capitalist civilisation which drew Keynes to monetary policy. Instability in the value of money was undermining the social contract on which capitalism was based.
John Maynard Keynes: 1883-1946: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman (2003)
Like Odysseus, Keynes was a successful, not a tragic, hero. He heard the beautiful singing of the Sirens, but took precautions against being shipwrecked, keeping to the course for which his talents and the state of the world predestined him. Artfully, he strove for the best of all worlds, in his life and his work, and miraculously, came close to achieving it.
John Maynard Keynes: 1883-1946: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman (2003)