Everyone talks about Keynes, but it seems like we do not really know him. He has been the dominant economic figure in the post WWII period but we have often projected what we want in economics on him. Surprisingly, Keynes is not really taught in economics classes these days. History has been supplanted by mathematical tools. The authors of this short book do a good job of reintroducing Keynes and describing the different Keynes that existed or currently exist.
The rise of Keynes after the General Theory was consistent with the ascent of economists as policy engineers. The failure of this policy engineering was projected onto Keynes. Developments in macroeconomics used Keynes as the straw man to measure the effectiveness of new ideas. Rational expectations and monetarism were not Keynesian economics. The rise of the new macroeconomics led to the fall of Keynes in many eyes.
With the financial crisis of 2008, there has been a reassessment of Keynes. We have been told that we need him once again to provide answers on economic growth. The authors argue that Keynes provided an ambiguous revolution of economy thought because he himself ha many personalities. He was not really an academic. He was a sometime speculator and investor. He tried to be a moral philosopher. He was a policy physician helping with the macro policy problems of the day. He tried to create a fundamental redirection of capitalist theory. His ambition to change economic thinking is still affecting the economic discipline. The authors provide the richness of this complex thinker and the fact that he is still a person of controversy on how we view the capitalist system.
The rise of Keynes after the General Theory was consistent with the ascent of economists as policy engineers. The failure of this policy engineering was projected onto Keynes. Developments in macroeconomics used Keynes as the straw man to measure the effectiveness of new ideas. Rational expectations and monetarism were not Keynesian economics. The rise of the new macroeconomics led to the fall of Keynes in many eyes.
With the financial crisis of 2008, there has been a reassessment of Keynes. We have been told that we need him once again to provide answers on economic growth. The authors argue that Keynes provided an ambiguous revolution of economy thought because he himself ha many personalities. He was not really an academic. He was a sometime speculator and investor. He tried to be a moral philosopher. He was a policy physician helping with the macro policy problems of the day. He tried to create a fundamental redirection of capitalist theory. His ambition to change economic thinking is still affecting the economic discipline. The authors provide the richness of this complex thinker and the fact that he is still a person of controversy on how we view the capitalist system.
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