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In THE END OF LAISSEZ-FAIRE, Keynes presents a brief historical review of laissez-faire economic policy. Though he agrees in principle that the marketplace should be free of government interference, he suggests that government can play a constructive role in protecting individuals from the worst harms of capitalism's cycles, especially as concerns unemployment. When the Great Depression struck a few years later, this work seemed very prescient. Keynes first earned widespread prominence immediately following World War I, when he published THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE PEACE. This book gained a good deal of notoriety because of its withering portraits of both French premier Georges Clemenceau and US president Woodrow Wilson. Keynes criticized the Allied victors for signing a treaty that would have ruinous consequences for Europe, if not modified as he suggested. Unfortunately, few leaders appreciated Keynes's criticisms, and he saw his worst fears realized in the rise of Hitler and the devastation of World War II. Keynes's brilliant mind and lucid writing are evident on every page. Both of these works are well worth reading for his profound knowledge of economics. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

economcs, history
By a man way ahead of his time. Almost prescience in what would happen. He really deserves more study then the 're-written" text books show today.

Prophetic
In Keynes' polemic work, he breaks the confines of what was the normal economist and focuses on the remaking of the structure of the international ordnance after World War I. Indeed, many things were either in the process of changing or had changed by this time: the European Powers had never fully recovered their relative status, but remained the de facto world powers for the next two decades; the rise of United States into the international Great Power arena, bringing with them a high degree of idealism - perhaps explainable by their relatively benign international conditions at home; A supposed new found morality in International Relations championed by the Wilsonians and their vision of a world where the security of the United States was inseparable from the security of all other peoples in all nations around the world, much similar to the Habsburg Empire, however valuing universal rights and shared values in the stead of religious tenets.

Woodrow Wilson's attempt to legitimize America's claim to leadership on its altruism, with his League of Nations and fourteen points, is indeed interesting and quite relevant to the present. In analyzing systems in anarchy it is hard to avoid the greater question of the parallels between the state system and the free market. The notion that it is acceptable, indeed that is our right, to bring order and stability to the anarchical state system while we must live within the confines of the anarchy in the market are just one of the many contradictions in our general philosophy.

Continuing on the subject at hand, Keynes main focus is centered on the "war reparations" that the heirs of Wilhelmine Germany were forced to pay the victors of WWI at Versailles. Keynes believed this attitude to be ancient and outdated - that war may indeed stem from the provisions of the peace treaties that end conflicts. Ultimately, he viewed the impoverishment of Germany to be both unnecessary and potentially harmful to future progress and cooperation. Best said in the eloquent words of Keynes himself:

"If we aim deliberately at the impoverishment of Central Europe, vengeance, I dare predict, will not limp. Nothing can then delay for long that final war... that which will destroy...the civilization and progress of our generation..."


Keynes warning fell upon deaf ears. What seemed such matter of fact to the statesmen at the Congress of Vienna seemed to allude those at Versailles - this despite the new found morality in international relations championed by the Wilsonians. Germany was forced to pay an unprecedented amount of war reparations to the victors. The peace would, as Keynes predicted, not last. The treaty of Versailles would set the stage for the conflict to follow.

The relevance of Keynes' argument comes not only form its insightfulness, but also from the impact it had on melding the "dismal science" of economics with geopolitics and International Relations. Keynes fully realized that Germany must be allowed to enter into the legitimization of the post-war World. The impoverishment and exclusion of such a force as Germany from Versailles would at best accomplish a punitive peace. The stability of the international order would then be quite precarious, as the victors are now set with the task of dealing with a country determined to undermine the settlement. Additionally, any county with a grievance may find an ally from the disaffected party. This is precisely what happened with Italy and, even though ideologically opposed, the Soviet Union's early alliance with Germany. Japans dissatisfaction with the international ordinance and allocation of power due to it not having any legitimizing say is also observable; Germany, Italy, Japan and the Soviet Union were no longer part of the romanticist Wilsonian League of Nations by 1938. From this analysis, it should be clear that the message Keynes was attempting to put forth was just this. Truly prophetic and groundbreaking.

Anti-Capitalism, Anti-Freedom
J.M. Keynes worked harder to destroy capitalism and free markets than any other man (except for perhaps Karl Marx). Born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he never had to create wealth, he simply wanted to re-distribute the wealth that others had created. His anti-capitalism, anti-free-market, socialist model continues to this day. Keynes never considered the act of taking income and property by force (or threat of force) from one group to give to another group (of his choice) immoral. American politicians today are Keynesians.

Michael Beitler, Ph.D.
Author, "Rational Individualism: A Moral Argument for Limited Government & Capitalism"

J.M. Keynes & his relevance today
Having never read Keynes before, and having only heard politicians and pundits either lionize or pillory him, I am in awe of the depth and substance of his thinking. This book, written after World War I is, in my opinion, required reading for all who would analyze our current politico-economic situation.I can't wait to get more of his stuff. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (8)

Prints not properly aligned in the pages and sometimes missing
I am not very happy with the book as the letters/print is not properly aligned on the pages. In fact, at some places it is so close to the margin that it feels that letters are missing.

Crash course in economics
Essays in Persuasion are a collection of articles and public letters published by Keynes in the 1920s and 30s. They treat mostly of economic subjects, beginning with the Versailles reparations and moving on to monetary manners, especially the return to gold, though the last fifth of the book is dedicated to political discussion (Keynes's view of Communism, the Liberal Party, hopes for a new culture in a future world of abundance...). They are a pleasure to read, spelled out with elegance and common sense and filled with humorous quips and witticisms.

This compendium is for anyone who doesn't have the skills or patience to read Keynes's General Theory. It lays out the essentials of Keynesian economic thinking, in particular on inflation and unemployment, while in passing making clear a number of economic terms and issues - for example how the gold standard worked and why, and the difference with the gold `exchange' standard, something that had completely escaped me. The Essays do require a minimal understanding of economic factors (interest and exchange rates, state and trade budgets, and how they relate), but they are not technical in style and are told in plain words; Keynes's public, after all, was the average newsreader or politician. A basic historical baggage also helps: why reparations were a difficult issue, the American loans, deflation and the incipient depression; here a good introduction is perhaps lacking. Nevertheless, this is accessible to all with this minimum culture, and it is both excellent economic education and mental exercise.

Finally, Keynes was a humanist, as the Essays show. He was the antithesis of the dry and unfeeling economist, and this makes for a refreshing and uplifting work. He was also human: one senses the anxiety rising as he recommended a tariff in 1931, or the misplaced relief at Britain's abandonment of the gold standard (a devaluation, with a similar effects to tariffs). And his modern relevance does not need underlining, with boom and bust and urgent monetary issues back to the fore.

Excellent Content; Dismal Edition
The publishers of this edition should be ashamed of themselves.The quality of this edition of Keynes' Essays In Persuasion is poor to say the least.
There are numerous typos.
The text is not justified properly; some words hang off lines, and there are irregular and gigantic spaces between words.
The table of contents is missing numbers.
There is no introduction to the author or the material.
The page numbers are inversed.
This is a low-quality, junior-high school effort edition, unworthy of the material it professes to have "beautifully produced."This edition is poorly edited.

Reading Essays In Persuasion is certainly worthy of your time, but this edition is not worthy of your money.

Appropriate today
It is eye-opening to read original essays by John Maynard Keynes, a person whose economic philosophy was criticized for many years, but it turns out that philosophy is applicable to today's economic problems. He writes with a casual style, so not hard to understand.

Great service
The book came in great shape, almost immediately.The seller followed up to confirm arrival and insure my satisfaction with the product.Couldn't ask for more. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (22)

Unreadable edition
This "General Books" edition was apparently made by using optical character recognition to typeset from an existing copy of the original book. The result is unreadable because the technique produced gibberish where there were smudges, underlining, etc. in the original copy. I have re-ordered (but not yet received) a more expensive copy of the book which appears to have been digitized and reset--and free of errors. Google also has a downloadable (pdf) version made by digitizing a copy of the book from a university library. Despite the errors, I've slogged through about three chapters and am blown away by the sense of being in the presence of genius--that's why I re-ordered the book in a more expensive edition. Because this is an important work, I think Amazon should delete the shoddy "General Books" edition from its offerings.

Poor quality book
While the subject is interesting and provides a world of insights, it is outragious that this particular edition is sold.The errors are in virtually every paragraph and become a distraction.Read a different book.

Not this edition!
Maynard Keynes' Economic Consequences of the Peace has long been recognized as a classic, and it takes on new significance in light of the recent meltdown on Wall Street.But if you want to buy a copy, you should forget this edition.It appears to have been scanned from an earlier copy, but no effort was made to clean up the text after scanning it.As a result, there are whole sections of gibberish, a mix of characters and symbols that makes no sense whatsoever.Much of the book is literally unreadable.

Kindel Edition lack formatting
I note that this Kindle edition has all the text, but none of the formatting. It does not have an active table of contents.

A much nicer version is available from Gutenberg - download the .mobi version. You can easily supply your own TOC by highlighting the chapter headings.

DO NOT BUY the "General Books" LLC edition
Do not buy the cheaper "General Books" LLC edition (featured above). It has so many typos and spacing problems that it is impossible to read.
... Read more

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“Today, Mr. Minsky's view [of economics] is more relevant than ever.”- The New York Times

“Indeed, the Minsky moment has become a fashionable catch phrase on Wall Street.”-The Wall Street Journal

John Maynard Keynes offers a timely reconsideration of the work of the revered economics icon. Hyman Minsky argues that what most economists consider Keynesian economics is at odds with the major points of Keynes's The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. Keynes and Minsky refuse to ignore pervasive uncertainty. Once uncertainty is given center stage, recurring episodes of financial system crises are all but inescapable. As Robert Barbera notes in a new preface, “Benign economic circumstances…invite increasingly aggressive financial market wagers. Innovation in finance is a signature development in a capitalist economy. Once leveraged wagers are in place, small disappointments can have exaggerated consequences.” Thus for Minsky economic calm on Main Street engenders financial system fragility which, in turn, ensures a perpetuation of boom and bust cycles.

Minsky colleagues Dimitri B. Papadimitriou and L. Randall Wray write in a new introduction, “We offer this new edition, in the hope that it will contribute to the reformation of economic theory so that it can address the world in which we actually live-the world that was always the topic of Minsky's analysis.”

Customer Reviews (6)

An absolutely brillant re-interpreation of Keynes
In this relatively short book, first written in 1975, economist Hyman Minsky presents an extraordinarily penetrating re-interpreation of the thought of John Maynard Keynes.Or so he sees it.I personally see very little Keynes here, and a great deal of original thought.Whether you give the credit to Keynes, as Minsky does, or to Minsky, as I do, this is one of the dozen best books I have ever read on economics.

A little disclosure.Long ago, I was on the Left, and was then conversant with the different types of Marxism, socialism and liberalism.Over the years, I have moved steadily to the right.At this point, I am more and more attracted to the Austrian school of Ludwig Von Mises and his American followers.I have a fairly low opinion of Keynes, who I regard as an intellectual trickster whose policy ideas, while often useful in the short-term, are basically destructive for society.

That said, I think Minsky is absolutely brillant.He is that extremely rare duck, the professional academic economist, who writes in difficult jargon, sprinkles his pages with equations and graphs, yet is deeply engaged with reality and whose theories actually add to our understanding of the real world.Minsky believed that, buried inside of Keynes General Theory there was an intellectual and policy revolution, which was aborted by the neoclassical synthesis of the 1950s and 1960s.His goal in this book is to liberate Keynes from the Keynesians.

I have very serious doubts about whether any significant part of this analysis is truly based on Keynes, but I have no doubt that it is very illuminating.Minsky presents a fascinating re-interpretation of the financial dynamics of the business cycle. He argues that, as a boom develops, businesses tend to alter their financial structures.They take on more risk.They take on more debt.This amplifies the boom.Then, as the boom collapses into the bust, firms alter their financial structures.They deleverage.They dump debt.This amplifies the bust.He presents a highly technical argument to support this thesis.Having observed the business cycle for some decades, I think this analysis is dead on.As far as that goes, I think Minsky's insights are fully compatible with Von Mises' masterful analysis of the business cycle.I think a full understanding will draw on both Von Mises and Minsky.And, given that this book was written in 1975, it is extraordinary as prophecy; Minsky described what actually happened in the 1990s and the 2000s, decades before it actually happened.

Minsky has policy ideas which I am not enthusiastic about.He is basically an old-line Third Way guy.He wants a middle path between socialism and capitalism.As Third Way thinkers go, Minsky is about as good as they get.I think the Third Way, however, is dead.One could argue that it was never really tried, in an intelligent way, and, if it ever had been, maybe it would have worked.I see that argument, but I disagree.Socialism does not work, either in 100% full strength or at half strength.

Having said that, I still affirm that Minsky is absolutely first rate as an analyst.I highly recommend his work to anyone with a serious interest in economics, and particularly in business cycle analysis.(He wrote another big book, Stabilizing an Unstable Economy.That book is also very good, but this one is better.)

Very good explanation of the cyclical nature of the capitalist
The author makes a statement that conventional intepretation of Keynes's ideas loses the true meaning and spirit of the real theory of JMK. He offers an alternative interpretation, that connect the debt financing in economy that is always speculative in nature (for the author's opinion) and cyclical behavior of the capitalism. During booms debt financing increases that leads to instability and crises (to make it very simple). Author is very persuasive both in explanation why his interpretation is much closer to real Keynes's views and in explanation of the real cyclical path of capitalism. I recommend this book to all who are interested in macroeconomics, business cycles, financial crises.

Two Great Economists
"But if capitalism is to be controlled so that the basic triad of efficiency, justice, and liberty is achieved, then the design of the controls will have to be enlightened by an awareness of what was obvious to Keynes--that with regard to both the stability of employment and the distribution of income, capitalism is flawed" -- Hyman P. Minsky

Hyman Minsky's 'John Maynard Keynes' is comprised of three parts.The first part, CH 1-3, deals with Keynes' General Theory, it's historical situation, and Keynes' later comments on the meaning of the GT.The second part of the book, CH 4-6, deals with Minsky's elaboration on crucial parts of the GT and revisions regarding some of Keynes' contradictory logic.The last section, CH 7-9, is Minsky's policy regarding what should be done to fulfill the aborted Keynesian Revolution.

'John Maynard Keynes' is a renunciation of the neoclassical synthesis. From the ashes rises a new theory of investment and business cycles.A perpetual series of booms and busts occur followed by a deflationary spiral.Eventually, after an unduly long period, the economy bounces back into an inflationary boom.Each time society thinks the cycle no longer exists: each time they are mistaken.The monetary and fiscal policy of the neoclassical synthesis is a poor prescription for this cycle and is becoming less effective at dealing with crisis's.

What is needed is government policy to reduce inequality and the complete socialization of investment.With less inequality investment will play a smaller role in aggregate demand.With the complete socialization of investment aggregate demand and employment can be controlled and maintained at potential.Ironically, it is only after investment has been socialized that the markets will act according to classical theory.So far Keynes' policy prescriptions have been perverted into 'socialism for the rich'.Keynes' advice needs to be implemented to create a more efficient, just, and liberal society.

With that said:This book is very limited in subject matter.It is a book primarily concerned with investment and its effect on the business cycle.For a more comprehensive macroeconomic analysis read Hyman Minsky's magnum opus 'Stabilizing an Unstable Economy'.JMK can be seen as a rough draft of Minsky's Financial Instability Hypothesis.I recommend Minsky to anyone willing to challenge economic dogma and learn how the economy actually works.

Brilliant study of Keynes
This excellent book examines John Maynard Keynes' key work, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, published in 1936, seven years into the Great Depression, when one in seven US workers was still out of work.

Keynes' thinking largely broke free of the conventional wisdom, that wrecking the trade unions would make the market work again. But he didn't leave behind all conventional free trade thinking.

Minsky writes, "the missing step in the standard Keynesian theory was the explicit consideration of capitalist finance within a cyclical and speculative context." Minsky shows that private investment is the constant source of speculation, instability, slumps and mass unemployment.

Minsky shows the conflict at the centre of capitalism: "the boom is critical; it builds an ever-more-demanding liability structure on the base of a cash-flow foundation consisting of the prospective yields of capital assets, which are, because of technology and the limited ability to squeeze workers' real wages, at best constrained ultimately to grow at a steady rate in real terms. The debt base, which grows at an accelerating rate during a boom, is not so constrained. Thus, debts require increased servicing as they grow and as financing charges increase."

He observes, "In Keynes' own view his theory implied that the existing order should be replaced by a much more egalitarian economy, based upon a dominance of social control over investment. As the private, profit-motivated decisions to invest cannot guarantee a reasonable approximation to full employment, `a somewhat comprehensive socialization of investment' (GT, p. 378) will prove necessary." But Keynes breezed over the politics needed to do this. How could we socialise investment without taking power from the capitalist class?

Minsky notes, "Keynes also believed that `if nations can learn to provide themselves with full employment by their domestic policy ... there need be no important economic forces calculated to set the interest of one country against that of its neighbours.'" But if capitalism could do this, it wouldn't be capitalism. Capitalist economies are basically flawed - unstable and unequal, unworkable and unjust.

A Book on Financial Instability
This is a great book.But it is a book about the views of Minsky, and not really on Keynes.The first chapter examines the way in which Keynes' 1936 book was received and interpreted, and Minsky's explanation is for the most part correct, namely, that Keynes' work represents more a revolution than an extension of "classical" economics.However, as is argued throughout Minsky's book, The General Theory contained only "the seeds for a deep intellectual revolution in economics and in the economists' view of society."According to Minsky, the Keynesian revolution was aborted and the seeds were prevented from reaching their full fruition due to the "bastardization" of Keynes' seminal message.Minsky sets himself the task in this book to bring these ideas back to life.

Chapter two explores the more orthodox (conventional) view of Keynesian economics.Chapter three is very good, as it spells out the concepts that are to be used later in Minsky's analysis of capitalism: the recurrence of the business cycle, uncertainty, and investment and disequilibrium.

Chapters 4 - 7 develop Minsky's theory of capitalism.Minsky argues that booms are inevitably followed by crises and debt deflation not because of certain institutional weaknesses, but because of the fundamental nature of capitalism.In other words, "Keynes visualized [the imperfections of the financial system] as systemic rather than accidental or perhaps incidental attributes of capitalism."Minsky explores the way investments are made, and examines how they are financed.Central to Minsky's analysis is the importance of uncertainty.Financing and liability structures cannot insulate themselves from danger (excessive risk) precisely because the future is uncertain.Another important element in Minsky's book is the importance of money, which he describes as as "insurance policy."This is consistent with Keynes' definition of liquidity.In the event that sales proceeds cannot meet existing liabilities, the possession of money becomes essential due to the frequent revaluations of capital assets making their quick sale at certain prices nearly impossible.

I really enjoy Minsky's work, but this book gives me the impression that Minsky was more concerned with fitting Keynes in his (minsky's) own analysis than in explicating very clearly and honestly Keynes' own economic views.This can best be seen in the last two chapters on social policy.Nevertheless, Minsky is the most important expositor of the "Financial Instability Hypothesis" and this book is a great place to begin. ... Read more

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Product Description
Robert Skidelsky’s three-volume biography of John Maynard Keynes has been acclaimed as the authoritative account of the great economist-statesman’s life. Here, Skidelsky has revised and abridged his magnum opus into one definitive book, which examines in its entirety the intellectual and ideological journey that led an extraordinarily gifted young man to concern himself with the practical problems of an age overshadowed by war. Meticulously researched and beautifully written, John Maynard Keynes offers a sympathetic account of the life and influences of a passionate visionary and an invaluable insight into the economic philosophy that still remains at the center of political and economic thought. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

How do you spellv...e...r...b...o...s...e?
I have been looking forward to reading a bio of the great economist, philosopher and trader and bought this book after seeing many positive comments.Sorry to say, I got bogged down very quickly.The author never misses a chance to blow up to 2 pages what could have been said in a single paragraph.The book is a like sea-going ship so overgrown with barnacles that it can no longer move forward.

Comprehensive biography of Keynes
This tome (including more than 100 pages of notes and indices) is an abridgment of author Robert Skidelsky's original three-volume biography of John Maynard Keynes. It is in all respects an extraordinary work. The author offers a portrait of Keynes not only as an economist but also as a philosopher and a statesman. He does not segregate these three dimensions, but rather shows how they interpenetrate and inform each other. He sets Keynes in the context of his time and circumstances. Skidelsky is unsparing in his treatment of the inconsistencies and contradictions in Keynes' life and character, but he is fair and balanced; he avoids sensationalism even in the treatment of the sensational. getAbstract finds that this book merits multiple readings and should intrigue not only economists but also anyone interested in the ideas and events of the 20th century.

A fitting tribute to one of the greatest thinkers of all time
Anyone who has taken a course in macroeconomics knows who Keynes is. Economics is full of camps, conflicting doctrines, feuds, rivalries, etc. Keynes was unique in that, unlike other economists who are indoctrinated or are in love with a theory, he was never scared of giving up an idea that did not work. If one was to read his "Tract on Monetary Reform" one might be fooled into thinking that it was Milton Friedman that was writing and not the J.M Keynes who revolutionized economic thought with his General Theory. This pragmatism is what sets Keynes apart from every other economist. But why Keynes was so different from others is something students never learn. This biography does an admirable job of tracing Keynes' upbringing, his education, career, and contributions in the light of circumstances that Keynes lived through and shaped his ideas. It is also full of nuggets about Keynes' idiosyncracies which humanizes the biography and shows the real person behind the aura. The book is long, but 63 years of action-packed life requires such detail. The Chinese say, May we live in interesting times. Keynes certainly lived in interesting times with the result that this book is just as interesting.

An excellent,nontechnical biography of J M Keynes
This book is Skidelsky's one volume abridged version of his previous three volume biography(1983,1992,2000)on J M Keynes.Skidelsky successfully weaves all of the different aspects and strands(personal,familial,historical,social,political,economic) of Keynes's life into a beautifully constructed historical tapestry that will keep the reader's attention from the first page to the last.All of the different talents Keynes possessed and displayed during his lifetime come alive on the pages of this book.Skidelsky is the master of his material as long as he concentrates on the vast nontechnical aspects of the life of his subject.Skidelsky has clearlymastered the historical and chronological events and interrelationships that occurred during Keynes's life.Unfortunately,Skidelsky does not have the necessary formal training in mathematics,logic,statistics or probability in order to properly understand or assess any of those parts of Keynes's scholarship that involves the use of formal logical and mathematicalmethods or analysis.These technical deficiencies in Skidelsky'sacademic training arethe maindefect,not only in this book but in the entire corpus of Skidelsky's writings on Keynes going back over 30 years.I will concentrate on Skidelsky's error filled statements concerning Keynes's A Treatise on Probability(1921;TP) and the logical theory of probability.On p.95,Skidelsky conflates the principle of indifference(poi) with the principle of insufficient reason.They are not the same.Keynes's poi requires a balance or symmetry of the relevant,available evidence or factors involved before equiprobabilities are assigned.The poi can't be applied if there is no relevant evidence.Advocates of the principle of insufficient reason,on the other hand, argue that equiprobabilities can be applied in states where no relevant evidence exists.Keynes always rejected this kind of reasoning.Skidelsky bases his assessment of Keynes's logical theory of probability on the error filled work of A. Carabelli and R.O'Donnell.Carabelli and O'Donnell base their assessments of the TP on four sources:1)Keynes's introductory guide to the measurement of probability in chapter III of the TP;2)F. Ramsey's 1922 book review of the TP in The Cambridge Magazine;3)F.Ramsey's 1926 book review of the TP in his article,"Truth and Probability",published in 1931 in a book of articles;and 4)Keynes's 4 page eulogy and very brief review of the book in 1931.In chapter III,Keynes had already made it clear to the alert reader,who had a mind of his/her own (and would not ape the preposterous ,nonsensical claims made by F. Ramsey that by nonnumerical and nonmeasurable Keynes meant that numbers could not be used in general to estimate probabilities,i.e.,that Keynesian probabilities were like a surveyor assigning nonnumerical heights to a mountain hidden in the mist)that the vast majority of Keynesian probabilities used in common discourse were/are interval estimates.John Maynard Keynes is the originator and founder of the interval estimate approach to probability.Keynes spells it out in a number of places in the TP:"...we judge that the probability of the actual argument lies between these two(numbers;reviewers note).Since our standards,therefore,are referred to numerical measures in many cases where actual measurement is impossible,and since the probability lies BETWEEN(Keynes's emphasis)two numerical measures..."(1921,p.32).After warning the reader not to reach any conclusions based on chapter III alone until after Part II of the TP was reached(p.37),Keynes gives his definition of nonnumerical in chapter 15 of Part II on p.160 of the TP.On pp.161-163 and pp.186-194(ch.17),Keynes presents his approximation approach .It has nothing to do with ordinal rankings(see Skidelsky's queer claims on pp.284-285,for instance).An upper bound and a lower bound are specified for some 13 worked out probability problems.One of these problems(a revision of Boole's problem 10)is then made the foundation for Part III of the TP.Part III is then made the logical foundation for Part V. Carabelli's and O'Donnell's "reading" of Keynes's TP is very poor,at best.Skidelsky's conclusions,based on their very poor reading,are very poor.Skidelsky also appears to have been misled by Richard Kahn and Joan Robinson into believing that Keynes was a strictly literary economist, who was a poor mathematician by 1927. Supposedly,Keynes had never taken the twenty minutes that was necessary to understand the theory of value(microeconomics).Based on these bizarre beliefs,Skidelsky comes to the queer conclusion that Keynes deliberately refused to present any formal mathematical model of his general theory in the General Theory(1936;GT).Any mathematically trained reader can find Keynes's completely worked out model,with the results presented in the form of elasticities so that a reader of the GT can compare Keynes's results with those of A C Pigou,in chapters 19,20,and 21 of the GT.Keynes then compares and contrasts his model with Pigou's model,who had also presented his results in the form of elasticities, in the appendix to chapter 19 of the GT.A technically trained economist should purchase a copy of the GT instead of this book. ... Read more

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The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money written by legendary author John Maynard Keynes is widely considered to be one of the top 100 greatest books of all time. This great classic will surely attract a whole new generation of readers. For many, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money is required reading for various courses and curriculums. And for others who simply enjoy reading timeless pieces of classic literature, this gem by John Maynard Keynes is highly recommended. Published by Classic Books America and beautifully produced, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money would make an ideal gift and it should be a part of everyone's personal library. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (68)

WARNING:Be careful of some versions.
The Management Laboratory Press (2009) and some other recent editions of Keynes's General Theory lack footnotes and an index (which would be handy for referring to Keynes's initial definitions). The MLP edition is also full of disappointing typos that seem to be due to inaccurate scanning. It doesn't divide the chapters into books I through VI, making Keynes's internal referencing confusing. One thing I do appreciate about this edition, however, is the inclusion of Keynes's prefaces for the German, Japanese, and French editions -- they give perspective on how Keynes believed his theory would apply to the situations in those countries.

It is a shame that there are so many editions of this book that are incomplete and/or contain errors from bad scans and a lack of quality control. Before buying any edition, make sure that it at least has Keynes's footnotes, divides the chapters into books I through VI, and has an accurate subject index.

If you try to read the General Theory, be ready for a challenge. It is a work of abstract economic theory written for economists of Keynes's time. It will seem strange and archaic even to modern economists because Keynes is meticulous about many things that we now take for granted.

To get the most out of reading it, I recommend checking out Paul Krugman's introduction beforehand. Krugman's intro offers the reader an idea of what to expect from the General Theory and it also presents a bit of a critique, outlining some successes and failures. It was written for a recent edition (Palgrave MacMillan 2007) and can be currently found for free on Krugman's unofficial online archive.

For an assessment of Keynes's magnum opus, I'll defer to Milton Friedman's December 31, 1965 essay from Time magazing ("We Are All Keynesians Now"):

"In Washington the men who formulate the nation's economic policies have used Keynesian principles not only to avoid the violent cycles of prewar days but to produce a phenomenal economic growth and to achieve remarkably stable prices. In 1965 they skillfully applied Keynes's ideas--together with a number of their own invention--to lift the nation through the fifth, and best, consecutive year of the most sizable, prolonged and widely distributed prosperity in history...

"Washington's economic managers scaled these heights by their adherence to Keynes's central theme: the modern capitalist economy does not automatically work at top efficiency, but can be raised to that level by the intervention and influence of the government. Keynes was the first to demonstrate convincingly that government has not only the ability but the responsibility to use its powers to increase production, incomes and jobs. Moreover, he argued that government can do this without violating freedom or restraining competition. It can, he said, achieve calculated prosperity by manipulating three main tools: tax policy, credit policy and budget policy. Their use would have the effect of strengthening private spending, investment and production."

(Of course, this was written before Friedman made his prediction about stagflation, which Keynes did not foresee. Regardless, the strength of Keynes's basic argument endures and, along with the contributions of Friedman and others, provides a solid understanding for many aspects of macroeconomics.)

voodoo economics.A ouijii board is just as useful.
Rubbish, that has been discredited by history, if not scores of economists.This bum, contrary to some of the reviewers here, was discredited following the stagnation of the 70's, and puzzingly is being embraced again.The pursuit of something fresh and novel and "progressive" trumped, in Keynes' mind, sound principals and irrefutable historic fact.If you want to see the success of Keynesian economics, just see for yourself the rubble created from nearly all of the 20th century, from the early Progressive era of WWI through today---the Great Depression, the steady inflation since the 30s, the boom-bust cycles whipsawing more wildly with each cycle...And in contrast, observe the Austrian Economics at work during the Depression of 1920-21 when President Harding resisted the siren song of deficit spending and under-consumption theory, and instead cut gvmt spending, opend-up free trade, cut tax rates (especially corporate rates)---and the Depression ended in 18 months.Coolidge continued these great policies, and voila!---we had the roaring twenties, the greatest era of expanded standard of living, not just for the US, but for the entire world. Before the wild hey-day of Keynesian deficit spending and ready money and credit, America practiced essentially the Austrian Economics practices (although the theory wasn't articulated yet) and it begat the greatest era of increased standard of living in history---even greater than Great Britain of the 19th century (following her repeal of the Corn Laws' severe impediments to free trade).
I agree with the one reviewer, that if everyone read Henry HAzlit's "Economics in One Lesson," with its clear, concise writing to the layman, then they would never again feel that the subject of economics was uncomprehensible, dense and mysterious. I would suggest a great political philosophical text as well---Frederic Bastiat's "The Law," which is the political science equivalent of Hazlit's great classic, in its brevity and startling clarity.

Classic, but too many typos
This is a classic book.However, the too many typos look like they resulted from scanning in the text and then not proof reading - the publisher does a diservice to the book.

Be careful with the version you are purchasing, some have many errors
There are a lot of comments about the quality of the specific version of Keynes' classic "The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money".I researched this using the Look Inside feature and found some notable differences in versions. Many publishers (such as "CreateSpace", BN) clearly used scanned copies of the original work and optical character recognition (OCR) software which results in many errors within the text. Specifically:
- within the equations, they use a "D" instead of the mathematical Delta character used in the original.
- incorrectly using or not using subscripts within the equations (i.e "Pwr" instead of "P" with subscript "wr").
- Many of the equations use the wrong greek math symbol altogether.
- In chapter 20, an important equation is rendered completely wrong.
- Other areas where the OCR created errors: "| Noreover" should be "Moreover"
- In chapter 15, one equation shows "MY=OP" where it should be "MV=OP".

Honestly, the quality of these versions is atrocious. Plus, in these cases, the footnotes are not even shown! Good lord.

The version from Signalman Publishing was found to be free of these errors. Other versions may be ok as well, but for now, the best version out there that I have found is from Signalman (link here: The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money).

Management Laboratory Press Edition
When I opened the package I was surprised how nice the book looks like. I have seen a couple version, but this one is really the nicest one. So if you are looking to impress somebody this is your book. :) Well, besides that it is nicely done. I think I don't need to say much about the content sine we all know the story of this classic masterpiece. Five stars from me! ... Read more

Product Description
What would the great economist of the last century, who had lived through two world wars and a great depression say to us today in the 21st century about our current economic situation? One will never know, but we do have the thoughts and writings of John Maynard Keynes.In "The Great Slump of 1930" he wrote about the period of deflation which was the great depression at a time when it had really just started and there were more questions than answers about what was happening.

At the time of his writing, Keynes could not have known how events would have turned out and finally overcome. However, he very accurately made an assessment on the seriousness and length of the economic and political problems, being very prescient, even in 1930.He understood that "the fundamental cause of the trouble is the lack of new enterprise due to an unsatisfactory market for capital investment."Keynes goes further and makes an astute observation which could just as easily apply to today's situation as it did in 1930: "Meanwhile, the reluctant attitude of lenders has become matched by a hardly less reluctant attitude on the part of borrowers. For the fall of prices has been disastrous to those who have borrowed, and anyone who has postponed new enterprise has gained by his delay. Moreover, the risks that frighten lenders frighten borrowers too."Much attention in today's situation has been given to the lending side of the equation, but not so much to the borrowing side and the willingness on the part of the borrower to assume risk in today's environment.Keynes rightly brings insight to the situation of his day.His work could bring insight to the policy makers of today as well. ... Read more

Product Description
"Hopes Betrayed" establishes Keynes' historical setting and explains what turned him into a radical economist. He gives an analysis of the economist's sustained assault on conventional wisdom, and shows how Keynes' story is not just that of a revolution in economic theory, but also part of the story of the evolution of modern government. Other books by Robert Skidelsky include "Politicians and the Slump", "The End of the Keynesian Era" and "Oswald Mosley". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Skidelsky fails to discuss Keynes's scientific contributions
This book is an excellent choice for a potential reader who is searching for a general overview of Keynes's early life.Like Moggridge's one volume study,Skidelsky's first volume(of three)has many interesting anecdotes and discussions of Keynes's interactions and involvement with a wide range of people.Unfortunately,Skidelsky drops the ball when he tries to evaluate the technical and intellectual contributions that Keynes made to applied probability,statistics and decision science in the period from 1904 to 1920.Keynesfinally published his pathbreaking work in 1921 in his A Treatise on Probability(TP).A specialistcan only come to the conclusion that Keynes made no breakthroughs in his TP after reading Skidelsky's bare bones treatment.This is most likely due to the fact that Skidelsky is a historian who has no training in the fields of mathematics, probability and statistics.It is true that Skidelsky limits his discussion of the TP in his first volume because he wanted to make an extended discussion of itin the second volume.Unfortunately,the treatment of the TP in volume II is badly marred by a number of mathematical errors.The interested potential book buyer is advised to read my review of volume II.Skidelsky fails to mention anywhere in Volume I that Keynes is the founder of the interval estimate approach to probability.In general,excluding the cases of symmetry and series or sequences composed of homogeneous frequency data,it takes two numbers,not one,to correctly specify an estimate of probability.A probability estimate is thus made up of a lower bound and an upper bound.Further,Keynes specified a clearcut approximation method based on the original work of George Boole in chapters 15 and 17 of the TP.The reader should note that all of this material is present in Keynes's 1907 and 1909 fellowship theses that he submitted to Cambridge University.Also present in these theses is an index created to measure the weight of the evidence,w.Keynes used different terms to describe weight,such as value,before settling for the term weight in the final published 1921 version.w measure the completeness of the relevant, potential evidence upon which a decision maker is going to base an estimate of probability.w is defined on the unit interval between 0 and 1,i.e.,0<=w<=1.Finally,Skidelsky ignores Keynes's conventional coefficient of risk and weight,c.Keynes presented this coefficient in both the 1907 thesis and the 1909 thesis ,which was accepted.This coefficient is the first time in history that a decision rule incorporated nonlinear probability preferences, as well as the weight of the evidence ,or what D.Ellsberg later called the ambiguity of the evidencein a 1961 Quarterly Journal of Economics article.

Love first, Philosophy second, Poetics third,Politics fourth
This profoundly researched and uncensored (sexually speaking) biography gives us a fascinating look into a highly privileged group of people in England when the British Empire was at its zenith. Half (sic) of the world's trade was financed by British credits in 1914.
It pictures the education of young Keynes, groomed by his parents for the highest civil duties, his acceptance in the exclusive Cambridge Apostles Circle (a main discussion point was Higher Sodomy) and his membership of the, in all aspects, anarchic Bloomsbury group. It shows without restaint Keynes' (homo)sexual awakening and his conventional (based on the Gold Standard) beginnings as an economist.
In the meantime, this book reveals the functioning of the British elitist School system (Eton, Cambridge) as well as the 'moral' environment of this period: the death of God and the birth of mass democracy.
Prof. Skidelsky's book contains a wealth of information on e.g. the conservative reasoning behind the Gold Standard, Utilitarianism or Moore's essentialistic, but influential, ethic system.
He shows us Keynes as a fundamental nationalist: 'it is better to have Englishmen running the world than foreigners'.
But nothwithstanding his exhausting efforts, he saw Britain and mainland Europe sinking under the war debts and being taken over by the US as world power, which was effectively controlled by one man, J.P. Morgan.
He attacked severely the Versailles Treaty but was devastated that politicians preferred suicidal short-time revenge and election success rather than long-time beneficial solutions.
This book is sometimes too detailed with extensive letter excerpts. Nonetheless, it is a fascinating read.

A would-be philosopher turned economist
John Maynard Keynes' life faithfully portrayed by Robert Skidelsky, is a life of a man grown up amidst the intelectual aristocracy of his time, which coincided with the beginning of the downfall of the Victorian age and was to culminate in the First World War. His father John Neville Keynes was a famous economist of his time and had many other intelectual atributes which he didn't want to put up to test in the academic arena, despite a lot of incentives by the famous economist Alfred Marshall, the most proeminent thinker of the neo-classics school of thought. Neville Keynes was determined instead to follow closely and have influence upon the professional careers of his most inteligent son. To anyone who whished to compare this situation to the education the philosopher James Mill gave to his son John Stuart Mill, I would warn he/she to be cautious cause the result is very much different than could be foresaw.
What the book shows is the fascinating formative years of one of the most influential men of all times, who had a strong appetite for getting all the knowledge he could get and who didn't hidebehind his geniality. Quite to the contrary, Keynes was up for everything he could grab, be it different sexual male partners, a lot of trips to Italy and a lot of academic prizes, estimulated by the spirit of competion his father tried to assert on him, at the end to no avail. Also, the pace of his intelectual output is outstanding, being Keynes almost always pushed to the limit to do a lot of different things at the same time.
Some crude aspects of Keynes sexual life are also all there via the transcriptions of the many letters he exchanged with his male lovers and friends of the many different intelectual cycles he was part of.
His education at the noblest institutions in England (Eton and Cambridge)where he got the opportunity to intermingle with the likes of Bertrand Russell, Virginia Wolf, Whitehead and the philosopher Moore, the latter certainly the most fundamental influence he had in these formative years, provided the social and intelectual backgrounds needed to awake the geniality of the most brilliant economist of the last century.

Out of your expectation
It's unexpectedly well decscibed how's Keynes in his childhood. He's in fact a well-spoken, witty gentleman with its charms inside which is mysterious. How could he become such a great economist, how he invent the theories, how he generated such a beautiful mind. It talked about Keynes' life in Eton College( a fundamental place for him to grow up and how his schoolmates affect him), and more is in King's College,Cambridge( which definitely a crucial turning point in Keynes' life) which included keynes' letter which he sent expressed his point of views, his love to Duncan. His writings were precise but in-depth. Moreover, it also includes a lot of cultural background informations which is like Cambridge traditions.It's a must-read book if you like Keynes.

Deep and relealing, a true insight.
Hopes betrayed is an exceptionally well researched and insightful book. The author goes into detail, and confirms previously unspoken truths about Keynes early life. It pays particular attention to Keynes homosexuality, such as his long held affections for Duncan Grant, and also his relationships, coiteries, and philosophies. Personally I found the chapters deailing Keynes' influence in the war most interesting.

Although the book goes into ample detail, it is a little dry, and possibly lacks a little life. One sometimes feels as if there are a few too many quotes, names and places. This somewhat detracts from the interest of the book.

However, overall anyone who is curious as to what made father of modern economics ought to read this book. ... Read more

Product Description
The second volume of the acclaimed biography of economist John Maynard Keynes takes his story from the controversial publication of The Economic Consequences of the Peace, through the reception of The General Theory in 1937. Reprint. NYT. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

He Lives On
If Keynes were alive today, I am sure he would subscribe to the Mark Twain quote:"Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."Keynes, the economic thinker, does live on.His many critics will be long forgotten before Keynes' ideas disappear.

The absurdity of the idea of "self-regulating markets" has been exposed through the latest financial meltdown.Economics, for Keynes, is a "moral science"--not a hard science in the fashion of physics or biology.Economics is a discipline that should be mainly concerned about socio/economic outcomes.Are those outcomes justifiable in terms of economic efficiency and social justice?Are they meritocratic outcomes?Or are they simply outcomes based upon time worn traditions and the greater power of the economically privileged classes?Have we essentially traded past centuries' entitled aristocratic classes with their wealth and power for our modern day version of entitled aristocratic plutocrats?

I am of the opinion that his critique of neo-classical economic theory is devastating.His warning about not trying to apply "too much precision" to ideas and concepts that are elusive and dynamic stands the test of time for me.It's too bad that contemporary economics appears to have learned so little from Keynes--or for that matter, from other critics of neo-classical capitalism such as Veblen, etc.

Keynes was hardly the bogeyman that many of his reactionary critics have tried to paint him as.He was fundamentally conservative in terms of wanting to preserve capitalism.He felt that the best way to do this was to tame the worst excesses of the business cycle.Control the speculative flights on the upside of the cycles largely by monetary policy.Reduce the suffering of the working classes at the lower ends of the cycle thru fiscal and monetary policies.He wanted to civilize capitalism--not eliminate it.He was quite happy and satisfied as a privileged member of the British upper middle/upper classes.However, he also had sympathy for working class people and truly wanted a better quality of life for British working people in general.He wanted to civilize and housebreak capitalism.Modern day capitalism would be a lot better off if it had followed his prescriptive recommendations.

The 3 volume set by Skidelsky is very lengthy, but certainly worth the effort if a person is very interested in life of Keynes.I was less interested in the first volume, but it lays out Keynes' early and formative years.He was a gay, intellectual aesthete in his early years.He fell in love in his middle years with Lydia, a Russian expatriate ballerina.She became his wife and love of his life for his remaining years.

He was a brilliant and complicated man.Fiercely loyal and generous.Quite egotistical and insufferable at times.A hopeless snob, yet very endearing to many who came in contact with him.He was also frequently anti-American in his outlook, but that was largely a result of his passionate British patriotism.No great globalization advocate here--unless it would promote the British and the British Empire's interests.He truly loved his country.Something that contemporary American economists might take a lesson from.

I liked the 3rd Skidelsky volume as well.However, I felt this 2nd volume is the best single volume choice for anyone wanting to learn about Keynes and his ideas of the 3 volume set.The author does a good job, although I often found myself in fundamental disagreement with his more conservative views.The 3 books were written during the high tide of the Reagan/Bush/Clinton eras of free market and de-regulation triumphalism.

Read Keynes himself; don't read this boring mess
John Maynard Keynes apparently had a life full of brilliant ideas, and the evolution from one idea to another is a brilliant story. I'm not quite sure how I know this, because the second volume of Robert Skidelsky's Keynes biography doesn't really convey it. But I do know it, somehow.

The main thing I've learned from this book is that I should go and read Keynes himself. Whenever Skidelsky quotes Keynes at any length, I breathe fresh air and I'm reminded that life can, indeed, be a wonderful place. For the remaining 95% of the book, I'm plodding through perfectly serviceable but unengaging prose. Skidelsky doesn't explain Keynes's economics well enough for intelligent non-specialists to really get the point. He explains Keynes's social life decently well, but one can consume only so much about country vacations and "Bloomsberries" before mentally consigning the lot of them to an eternity of bad food and cattiness.

The jacket insists that Skidelsky has told an amazing love story, presumably the one between Keynes and Lydia Lopokova. I don't know quite which biography that reviewer was reading. Certainly not this one.

I'm told there's a condensed version of the Keynes bio: one volume instead of three. That may be worth your time. It depends on what you want. The life of Keynes doesn't actually seem all that interesting on its own -- no more interesting than any other smart person's life, and substantially less interesting than Bertrand Russell's (with whose life Keynes's overlaps). As for the content of Keynes's ideas, those certainly are worth the time, but I just can't see that Skidelsky -- condensed or otherwise -- is the man to teach these to us.

Probably the best route is to read Keynes's own Economic Consequences of the Peace, Tract on Monetary Reform, Essays in Persuasion, and General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. I'm told that Alvin Hansen's Guide To Keynes is how economists normally approach the General Theory, and my initial glance at Hansen's book suggests that it's a good start.

If we believe Skidelsky, Keynes's Treatise on Money is overlong, impenetrable, and notationally confused. I trust bad writers to spot their kin, so I believe him on this score.

Skidelsky overlooks Keynes's mathematical contributions
I highly recommend the second volume of Skidelsky's three volume study of the life of John Maynard Keynes for the general reader.The general reader will be rewarded with a 5 star performance.Skidelsky masterfully weaves an incredible amount of material about the private and public life of Keynes in a manner that will provide thenonspecialist,general reader with many hours of reading pleasure.Unfortunately,the same cannot be said for the specialist seeking a technical analysis and evaluation of Keynes's scientific contributions to philosophy,applied probability,applied statistics,decision science and economics.It is in this area that Skidelsky fumbles the ball just as it appeared that he was going to go all the way and score a touchdown.This is most likely due to the fact that he is a historian with little or no training in philosophy,mathematics,statistics,probability and economics.Let me catalog the technical problems .First,Skidelsky confuses the 12th-13th century debate between the nominalists and the realists(Platonists) with the realist versus idealist debate of the 19th-20th centurybetween,among others,G.E.Mooreand Bertrand Russell(the realists of the 20th century who would be supporting the nominalists in the 12th century),on the one hand and J.M.E.McTaggart and F.H.Bradley,on the other hand,who would be supporting,in general,the realists of the 12th century.(See Skidelsky's extremely confusing discussion on pp.74-77).Second,Skidelsky is completely confused about the nature and construction of Keynesian probabilities.Keynesian probabilities,in general,are intervals.They require the use of two numbers ,not one.The first number is called a lower bound.The second number is called an upper bound.Keynes's approximation method has absolutely nothing to do with ordinal rankings. In fact,the general case occurring among decision makers in the real world would be of overlapping intervals.Consider the following simple example.Let probability one be estimated by the interval[.4,.6].Let probability two be estimated by the interval[.5,.7].The probabilities have very specific numeric bounds,but they are ,in fact,nonrankable,noncomparable and nonadditive.It is not possible to say that one of the two probabilities is greater than,less than or equal to the other probability.Skidelsky has accepted at face value the extremely poor analysis of Keynes's TP done by F.Ramsey in two book reviews published in 1922 and 1926.Ramsey committed the fatal error of misinterpreting Keynes's chapter 3 terms in the TP,nonnumerical and nonmeasurable,as meaning that no numbers could in general be used to estimate the probability relation.Ramsey never read chapters 15 and 17 of the TP where Keynes made it clear that most probabilities could be represented as intervals.(The reader will find literally one dozen errorsof omission or commission committed on pp.58-61 and 67-73 of Skidelsky with regard to the issue of the use of numbers in Keynes's logical theory of probability).Skidelsky ignores Keynes's creation of an index to measure the weight of the evidence,w,where w is defined on the unit interval[0,1]and measures the completeness of the relevant potential evidence available upon which to make an estimate of a probability.Skidelsky overlooks Keynes's conventional coefficient of risk and weight,c,that solves all of the paradoxes of subjective expected utility theory.Keynes was the first scholar in history to devise a decision rule incorporating nonlinear probabilities and weight of the evidence(later called ambiguity of the evidence by D.Ellsberg in 1961).Lastly,Skidelsky has overlooked the mathematical specification of Keynes's theory of effective demand that Keynes derived from his Y model of chapter 10and from his D-Z model of chapters 3,20-21 of the General Theory in 1936.Let us define w to equal a constant money wage,p to equal the price level,w/p to equal the real wage,MPL to equal the marginal product of labor in the aggregate,MPC to equal the marginal propensity to spend on consumption goods, and MPI to equal the marginal propensity to spend on copital goods.Keynes then arrives at the following general result:w/p=MPL/(MPC+MPI).The classical and neoclassical(monetarism,rational expectations,real business cycle theory,etc.)theories are all special cases which require that MPC+MPI=1.Skidelsky's claim that Keynes did not provide a mathematical model of his theory of effective demand in the GT (see pp.537-542,especially p.540)is an error in magnitude equal to the errors made by Frank Ramsey about the meaning of the terms "nonnumerical" and"non measurable".The specialist will be disappointed with this volume of Skidelsky's biography of J.M.Keynes.

Economics is a moral science
The second part of Prof. Skidelsky's magnificent biography of J.M. Keynes is nearly totally concentrated on economic issues. Keynes' personal life was perfectly settled after his marriage with a Russian ballerina. He continued to be in contact with the Bloomsbury group, which 'remained subversive by habit, but was anxious to retain their dividends and beauftiful houses'.
In fact, this book centres on the question how Keynes came to write the 'General Theory' and its defense of governmental intervention (public investments) in the economic cycle in order to break the capitalistic slump. He proved that in a laisser-faire system an equilibrium could be formed at a far lesser level than 'natural' unemployment: 'There is work to do, there are men to do it. Why not bring them together!'
We discover that Malthus was a real influential precursor with his proposition to prop up insufficient demand by public works and that Richard Kahn made a decisive contribution with his multiplyer effect.
Prof. Skidelsky characterizes perfectly the 'General Theory' as a complex psychological drama with as main characters the life-denying rentier, the businessman and his fantasies and the victimized working class.
Keynes' ultimate nightmare was a world were making money triumphed over making things, which is actually happening. Financial transactions are dwarfing the industrial ones and there are many more investment trusts than industrial companies in the US.
The discussions after the publication of the 'General Theory' are fascinating. In fact, the debate is still red hot: inflation/deflation, the influence of the (inter)national banks, savings and (un)employment.
This book is not an easy read. I recommend readers to (re)read some parts of the 'General Theory'. But this work is a fascinating tale about the (r)evolution of the ideas of the greatest economist of all times.
I have only one minor remark: Ibsen is a Norwegian, not a Swede.

Who was more keynesian them Keynes himself?
Keynes activities, both as an active participant of the economic life of his country andcontinent, and as an icon to the cultural life of his epoch and to his many friends and groups of interest, is impressive. To define him is an elusive task: philosopher?, economist?, historian?, linguist?. He was all this and much more, but he was above all a man of a very practical mind and, notwhidstanding his immense philosophical background, deeply attached to thetheories of his contemporary G.E.Moore and others, he had the feeling of having a mission to accomplish, given the immense superiority his intellect had over the rest of the mortals.

What was to become of Europe after the end of the First World War was foreseen by him in many essays and primarily in his book The Economic Consequences of the Peace. The task which lays ahead for him, and only him, was to warn politicians and thinkers of the impending dangers of the years to come, specially in regard to a lack of theoretical analisys to support the transition from the old economy (classicist in his jargon), which ended with the death of the great Alfred Marshall, and a new one, which he purpoted himself to establish and then save the world. And save the world he did!!! Keynes is one of this towering figures who had the opportunity to mingle himself with daily facts and change them for the better. Amid a lot of controversy and polemic regarding the originality of his ideas, he published his major opus in 1937, which was to be used against the vagaries of rampant unemployment and inflation. His General Theory of Interest , Employment and Money is a sort of tribute he pays to his father , Malthus and G.E.Moore.
In the personnal side of his life, if this can be said of Keynes for his personal life was eminently devoted to cultural interests i many areas, the book portrays some important changes in his personal atitudes towards homosexuality (he abandoned) and his new life marrying the russian ballerina Ludmila. ... Read more

Product Description
The Big Three in Economics reveals the battle of ideas among the three most influential economists in world history: Adam Smith, representing laissez faire; Karl Marx, reflecting the radical socialist model; and John Maynard Keynes, symbolizing big government and the welfare state. History comes alive in this fascinating story of opposing views that continue to play a fundamental role in today's politics and economics. In the twenty-first century, Adam Smith's 'invisible hand' model has gained the upper hand, and capitalism has ultimately won the ideological battle over socialism and interventionism. But even in the era of globalization and privatization, Keynesian and Marxist ideas continue to play a significant role in economic policy in the public and private sectors. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Misleading
This book is well written, easy to follow and presents the ideas of many economists with simplicity. Yet I only gave it two stars, and this is due to several reasons. First, the content of the book is not faithful to its title. This book should have been called "The Big One in Economics (Adam Smith)". I bought the book hoping to read about the main economic principles put forth by each of Smith, Marx and Keynes. Instead, the book turned out to be a description of how Smith's ideas triumphed over all others despite the numerous attacks that were launched on them. My problem is not the fact that the author thinks that Smith's ideas have triumphed, although I don't agree with that. Smith after all is the father of modern economics and he was an excellent thinker. His book should be read by all. My problem is with the author using such a misleading title. Second, I was amazed at the ease with which the author wrote off Marx as an economic thinker. The author actually goes as far as to wonder how anyone can believe in Marx's economic theory. The answer, again according to the author, was that Marx was more of a prophet and hence the effect that he had on his followers need not be rational. The author mentions Paul Sweezy's book "The theory of Capital Development" in a small paragraph and does not even bother himself to address any of the issues raised by it. Instead, like many authors before him he spends a considerable amount of time talking about Marx's life. I would have rather read a critique of some of the Marxian ideas put forth by Sweezy than read how Marx had an illegitimate child. When it came to discussing the ideas of Keynes, the author manages to give Keynes credit for being a great economist, yet makes his ideas seem as good enough for specific circumstances, and not good enough to be an all-encompassing theory. Keynes, according to the author was right in a specific circumstance, nothing more. All in all, the book started out as being very promising and ended as a narrow version of the history of economic theory.

Reads like a college essay.
I didn't make it very far into this book before putting it down. It was not what I expected. I did not care for the writing style at all. It was too dry and academic for me to continue reading. I am interested in learning more about these three figures, but this read like a thesis paper.

An excellent book
The book takes an open-minded and balanced view of the philisophies and economics of those titled.If you're looking for an explanation of how the modern economy evolved, this book by Dr. Skousen, a brilliant author and speaker, is an excellent choice.

Opinionated
The author's predilection for Smith is obvious from the early chapters.It would be a more satisfying book if he substantiated this with real-world examples.His sniping at fellow academics is trying at best.

excellent history of economics
For a while I have been wanting to delve into economics. With the current crisis, I thought it imperative to start learning what was going on so I could at least understand the news if nothing else. This book is fantastic for the novice who wants to understand economics. Though it is a history, learning the history may be the best way to learn the subject.

Those sympathetic to free-market economics will probably enjoy more than others since Skousen is critical of Marx and Keynes. But he also submits evidence as to why Marx and Keynes have been wrong much of the time. While it is called The Big Three (Smith, Marx, and Keynes), I'd say that they take up only about half of the book.A fair amount of space is given to the background and influences of these big players.A brief biographical sketch is given of the Big Three. Then he covers their economic beliefs. He discusses their successes and shortcomings. Skousen does an excellent job of painting a coherent image of economic history.

In case you are wondering, I would guess that Skousen is most sympathetic to the Austrian School (and rightly so!).
Unfortunately this book came out just a bit before the current economic crisis took off so it isn't covered. But Skousen does correctly point out that much of what you see in the news media (and the governing politic) is Keynesian ecomonics (consume, consume, consume your way out of the recession). And this is very evident watching the TV today. Too bad they're wrong. ... Read more

Product Description
This Halcyon Classics ebook is John Maynard Keynes' THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE PEACE.Keynes (1883-1946) was a leading British economist of the Left, noted for his work in refining business cycles and his advocacy for direct government stimulus to mitigate the adverse effects of economic recessions and depressions. His ideas are the basis for the school of thought known as Keynesian economics.

THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE PEACE was written in the aftermath of the Versailles Treaty which ended the first World War.Keynes, a representative of the British Treasury at the Versailles Conference, came away from the conference believing that Germany had been unfairly treated by the Allies; he argued for a more generous (and in his view, a more lasting) peace with the Central Powers.THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE PEACE was critical in establishing a general opinion that the Versailles Treaty was an unfair treaty, contributing to negative American public opinion against the treaty and the League of Nations, as well as support for appeasement in Britain during the 1930s.

Includes an active table of contents for easy navigation.
... Read more

Product Description
The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money & Essays In Persuasion written by legendary author John Maynard Keynes are widely considered to be two of the top 100 greatest books of all time. These two great classics will surely attract a whole new generation of readers. For many, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money & Essays In Persuasion are required reading for various courses and curriculums. And for others who simply enjoy reading timeless pieces of classic literature, the combination of these two gems by John Maynard Keynes are highly recommended. Published by Classic Books America and beautifully produced, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money & Essays In Persuasion would make an ideal gift and this two book combination should be a part of everyone's personal library. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

One of The Greatest Economic Minds
John Maynard Keynes is one of the great economic minds of our time. This is a great edition of his work with Essays in Persuasion as an added bonus!!!

Better than other Editions of the GT of EI+M
The value of this new edition of The General Theory of Employment Interest and Money is in its inclusion of Essays in Persuasion. One can gain greater insight into Keynes by reading more than his most famous book. You can see how his views developed. However, it is equally important to understand the historical context of Keynes' thought.

The strengths of The General Theory are in its treatment of time, information, uncertainty, and coordination problems. Keynes investigates many scenarios where miscommunication between groups of individuals leads to coordination failures that lead to a specific type of problem- deficient aggregate demand. We should think of trade cycles as coordination failures, and Keynes raises many such possibilities.

The historical significance of this book is a matter of contention. According to the prevailing mythology, Keynes singlehandedly transformed professional opinion concerning the causes of the Great Depression. Prior to Keynes all economists believed that markets self-correct. In reality, several economists developed demand side theories of unemployment before Keynes: Dennis Robertson, JM Clark, M Kalecki , Lautenbach, JA Hobson, JR Commons... Keynes was involved in the development of these ideas, but he is not singularly responsible for either the development or popularization of these ideas. The real founder of modern macroeconomics is the Swedish economist Knut Wicksell, not JM Keynes.

There are empirical problems with this book. Keynes argued that decreases in private components of aggregate demand cause cycles. Yet, shifts in the money supply correlate well with depressions. Also, at the close of World War 2, Keynesians predicted another great depression in 1946 due to massive decreases in government spending for armaments. They were clearly wrong, and this is very damaging to Keynes' case. If his 'effective demand' hypothesis is correct, there should have been a depression in 1946. Modern Keynesians, like Paul Krugman, claim that we don't know what happened in 1946, but we really do know. Capitalism worked in that particular instance.

Keynes paid almost no attention to data in this book. Instead, he focused, as the title implies, on theory. His central hypothesis is his 'Principle of Effective Demand. He lays out the main variables involved here on page 29. This principle supposedly refutes Say's law of Market. Keynes claims that total spending can fail to generate full employment. This happens when total savings exceeds total investment. A key supporting argument is that investors will hold cash when interest rates fall. This cash holding supposedly causes demand to fall. The truth is that investors do not hold cash, but instead hold their money in some form of asset in financial markets, even when they are speculating over future bond prices. In the absence of legal restrictions money stays in the financial system and circulates. Depositors did withdraw money from banks- during the banking panics that began in November of 1930. Were these panics an effect of a slowdown that had already existed for more than a year, or the cause of the slowdown itself? Keynes might have the direction of causation backwards.

Keynes refers to the 'marginal efficiency of capital' and downplays the critical issue of time preference. Oddly, Keynes does admit that money serves as a link between present and future (p293), and even considers dividing economics between the theory of stationary equilibrium and shifting equilibrium (same page). But Keynes never dealt with time preference all that clearly. In his world, capital markets are driven by 'animal spirits', not expected profits. 'Marginal propensities' drive saving, not inter-temporal consumer choice. The validity of these propositions is questionable.

Keynes' irrationalist view of markets stands in contrast to his view of government. Will public officials stabilize the economy via some socialization of investment? He seemed to believe that government officials seek simply to promote the general welfare, rather than to seek political gain by catering to special interests. Does the historical record substantiate this view of government? It should be noted that Keynes does not endorse deficit spending in this book. Deficit spending was proposed by Abba Lerner- and endorsed by Keynes (after initial hesitation). In this book Keynes recommended something even worse than deficit spending- `somewhat comprehensive socialization of investment' (p378). The economics profession drifted away from Keynes during the late 20th century. In fact, modern Keynesian economics bears almost no resemblance to this book. The recent financial crisis has renewed interest in The General Theory, but it arguments have not gained any greater applicability. The housing boom was driven primarily by Federal Reserve Bank policy, not by 'animal spirits'. The General Theory has its place in history, and it should stay there along side Keynes' Essays in Persuasion. ... Read more

Product Description
'...among the glories of modern publishing...edited with exemplary authority and lack of fuss...' - London Review of BooksThis definitive edition contains all Keynes's published writings, including less accessible articles and letters to the press, as well as previously unpublished speeches, government memoranda and minutes, drafts and economic correspondence. No other writer in this century has done more than Maynard Keynes to change the ways in which economics is taught written. No other economist has done more to change the ways in which nations conduct their economic and financial affairs. The Collected Writings are indispensable to all economists. They are a vital reference work for students, academics and professionals alike. ... Read more

Product Description
Gilt desings to covers. Watered silk endpapers. 674 pp. Brown leather covers. Gilt page edges ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Satisfactory.. but it's a shame
After finishing this book I felt disappointed. I wanted to like it and it was recommended by someone that I value their opinion. I think the problem was I just finished "Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction" and that is an absolutely great book. This book was boring in spots and didn't explain enough of Keynes ideas. If you want to read a great book on economists, please read the book I just mentioned. I'm disappointed in the one but it just has too many issues to warrant a higher recommendation.

2.5 stars-Harrod simply didn't understand what Keynes had done in the GT and TP
Harrod's biography is a good read if the reader is simply interested in general information about Keynes concerning his background,where he went to school,his friends and assocates,his multifacted and varied interests and successes in many different areas of life,etc.
The problem is that Harrod never understood the technical nature of the A Treatise on Probability or General Theory(GT).He basically concluded that the GT WAS the Chapter 10 analysis that revolved around the marginal propensity ot consume(mpc),the multiplier,and the Y=C+I model where C=bY,where b=mpc and 0Read more

Product Description
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free.This is an OCR edition with typos.Excerpt from book:CHAPTER IIITHE MEASUREMENT OP PROBABILITIES1. I Have spoken of probability as being concerned with degrees of rational belief. This phrase implies that it is in some sense quantitative and perhaps capable of measurement. The theory of probable arguments must be much occupied, therefore, with comparisons of the respective weights which attach to different arguments. With this question we will now concern ourselves.It has been assumed hitherto as a matter of course that probability is, in the full and literal sense of the word, measurable. I shall have to limit, not extend, the popular doctrine. But. keeping my own theories in the background for the moment, I will begin by discussing some existing opinions on the subject.2. It has been sometimes supposed that a numerical comparison between the degrees of any pair of probabilities is not only conceivable but is actually within our power. Bentham, for instance, in his Rationale of Judicial Evidence? proposed a scale on which witnesses might mark the degree of their certainty; and others have suggested seriously a ' barometer of probability.' 2That such comparison is theoretically possible, whether or not we are actually competent in every case to make the comparison, has been the generally accepted opinion. The following quotation 3 puts this point of view very well:" I do not see on what ground it can be doubted that everydefinite state of belief concerning a proposed hypothesis is in itself capable of being represented by a numerical expression, however difficult or impracticable it may be to ascertain its actual value. It would be very difficult to estimate in numbers the vis viva of all of the particles of a human body at any instant; but no one doubts that it is capable of numerical expression. I mention t... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

A Treatise on Probability by General Books LLC is OCR nonsense
This particular edition (A Treatise on Probability by General Books LLC) of the book seems a ripoff to me and I strongly recommend against buying it.

The small print on the front pages states that the book was created with OCR, to "keep the cost as low as possible".

This was not clear from the Amazon web.

This is so bad that I will wait a few years before I buy anything more at Amazon.

Mathematical formulas that are undecipherable ... supposing these typographical trainwrecks were formulas in the first place

To name a few issues, apart from a stream of spelling errors:
- a table of contents with no titles, just "section 1", "section 2" and so on
- random sections: section 17 starts with "chapter XXI", section 30 with "chapter XXXIII", section 31 appears to be the index
- sections starting in midsentence and, conversely, "chapter XXIX" appearing unceremoniously halfway down a page
- an index which refers to seemingly random pagenumbers
- mathematical formulas that are undecipherable ... supposing these typographical trainwrecks were formulas in the first place
- footnotes strewn through the text, again supposing that the many lines starting with digits are indeed footnotes.
- no layout whatsoever

In short: Do not buy this.

This particular edition is unusable
This particular edition (A Treatise on Probability by General Books LLC) of the book seems a ripoff to me and I strongly recommend against buying it.
The small print on the front pages states that the book was created with OCR, to "keep the cost as low as possible".
That's all very well, but readability was kept as low as possible too.

To name a few issues, apart from a stream of spelling errors:
- a table of contents with no titles, just "section 1", "section 2" and so on
- random sections: section 17 starts with "chapter XXI", section 30 with "chapter XXXIII", section 31 appears to be the index
- sections starting in midsentence and, conversely, "chapter XXIX" appearing unceremoniously halfway down a page
- an index which refers to seemingly random pagenumbers
- mathematical formulas that are undecipherable ... supposing these typographical trainwrecks were formulas in the first place
- footnotes strewn through the text, again supposing that the many lines starting with digits are indeed footnotes.
- no layout whatsoever

Please read similar comments on:
[...]

The offer to download the original scan of the book from their website [...] seems meaningless too,
I couldn't find the book by author, title, barcode or ISBN.

Interesting and scary
So you think you know how and why the markets work the way they do.... Try reading this!

Not Famous, for a reason
Keynes is famous for economics.This book is a
fairly well written introduction to probability,
but there are many other books which I would
recommend above it.

If you want to read Keynes, you might start
with "Essays in Persuasion".

Very extravagant
In fact the copy I received contains only blank pages, without any text, absolutly none. I don't know if it is odd. May be it is a singular copy. In any case, I am intending to keep the copy I received,and if there is a normal text available, I certainly would like to order one.
R.A.Naique, Lisbon (PORTUGAL) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

from a new, non-acedemic student of economics
I read this book because I understand that Keynes is very influential in modern economic policy.I wanted to understand the theories behind the policy.

This is written from the perspective of a beginning student of economics without the benefit of classes.I'm just basically reading about economics because I want to know...

Keynes says at the outset that this is written to the professional economist he hopes it will be within the reach of the average person, but that is not his audience.He was right.This is NOT a casual read.It is a very VERY heavy read.I read "The Wealth of Nations" and Ricardo's "Principles of Political Economy."I had hoped that this would be some preparation, and it was to a certain degree.However, I still read this with a notebook and pen-taking several pages of notes.I had to do some background research on some of the things he talks about, but I got through it.

The book was dry.Very dry.It was written on a very theoretical level.Smith and Ricardo both took made up scenarios and explained how their theories applied and worked in this scenario.No such example in this book.He added a lot of un-needed words and phrases.It made the book a little harder to follow.

All that being said, he kept moving.Smith and Ricardo tended to beat certain points to death.No such thing here.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read.I was fascinated by it.

I do not feel qualified to comment on the nuts and bolts of his theories.However, his conclusion-was like...insane...That's all I'll say.I can't stand these morons that write a book review and pontificate about their opinions. ... Read more