Economist:John Maynard Keynes

John Maynard Keynes

Biography

British economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and economic policies.

School of Thought

Keynesian Economics

Notable Quotes

On Innovation Cycles and Market Bubbles

"The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones."

—John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936), p. viii, Palgrave Macmillan

On Innovation Cycles and Market Bubbles

"Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent."

—John Maynard Keynes, Attributed (1930)

On Labor Market Disruption from Automation

"In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the storm is long past the ocean is flat again."

—John Maynard Keynes, A Tract on Monetary Reform (1923), p. 80, Macmillan

Additional Notable Quotes

On Innovation Cycles and Market Bubbles

"Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist."

—John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936), p. 383, Palgrave Macmillan

On Wealth Inequality and Technology

"The political problem of mankind is to combine three things: economic efficiency, social justice and individual liberty."

—John Maynard Keynes, Essays in Persuasion (1931), p. 344, Macmillan

On Digital Currency and Monetary Policy

"By a continuing process of inflation, government can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens."

—John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919), p. 235, Macmillan