
A British economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments.
Một nhà kinh tế học người Anh với các ý tưởng đã thay đổi căn bản lý thuyết và thực hành kinh tế vĩ mô cũng như chính sách kinh tế của các chính phủ.
This biography of John M Keynes helps you learn English through real historical stories. Explore John M Keynes's impact on the world.
John Maynard Keynes was born in 1883 in Cambridge, England, into an academic family. He studied mathematics at King's College, Cambridge, but soon developed a deep interest in economics under the guidance of Alfred Marshall. During World War I, he worked for the British Treasury, but he gained international fame in 1919 when he resigned in protest over the Treaty of Versailles. In his bestselling book, "The Economic Consequences of the Peace," he accurately predicted that the harsh reparations imposed on Germany would lead to economic ruin and future conflict.
The Great Depression of the 1930s shattered the classical economic belief that free markets would automatically provide full employment. Observing the prolonged mass unemployment, Keynes published his magnum opus, "The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money" in 1936. He revolutionized economic thought by arguing that overall demand determines the level of economic activity. When private demand falls, he asserted, the government must step in to stimulate the economy through deficit spending, public works, and lower taxes, effectively managing the "boom and bust" cycles of capitalism.
Keynes's ideas, which became known as "Keynesian economics," profoundly reshaped Western economic policies for decades following World War II. In 1944, he was a leading architect at the Bretton Woods Conference, helping to establish the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to rebuild the post-war global economy. Although the dominance of his theories waned in the 1970s with the rise of monetarism, his concepts saw a massive resurgence during the 2008 global financial crisis. Today, Keynes is widely regarded as the founding father of modern macroeconomics, proving that government intervention can be a vital tool for economic stability.