The Essays in Persuasion is an interesting collection which is often referred to as prophetic. Keynes was not prophetic, he simply understood his field to a standard that Buffett understands finance, Einstein understood physics and Scipio Africanus understood war/5 In the light of subsequent history, Essays in Persuasion is a remarkably prophetic volume covering a wide range of issues in political economy. In articles on the Versailles Treaty. John Maynard 4/5(1) Essays In Persuasion by Keynes, John Maynard. Publication date Topics RMSC Collection digitallibraryindia; JaiGyan Language English. Book Source: Digital Library of India Item blogger.com: Keynes, John Maynard blogger.comioned: TZUser Interaction Count: K
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Jump to ratings and reviews. Want to Read. Rate this book. Essays in Persuasion John Maynard Keynes. In the light of essays in persuasion history, Essays in Persuasion is a remarkably prophetic essays in persuasion covering a wide range of issues in political economy.
In articles on the Versailles Treaty. John Maynard Keynes foresaw all too clearly that excessive Allied demands for reparations and indemnities would lead to the economic collapse of Germany. In Keynes's essays on inflation and deflation, the reader can find ideas that were to become the foundations of his most renowned treatise, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money With startling accuracy Keynes forecast the economic fluctuations that were to beset the economies of Europe and the United States and even proposed measures which, if heeded at the time, might have warded off an era of world-wide depression.
His views on Soviet Russia, essays in persuasion, on the decline of laissez-faire, and the possibilities of economic growth are as relevant today as when Keynes originally set them forth. Economics Nonfiction Business Finance More Details, essays in persuasion.
John Maynard Essays in persuasion books followers. John Maynard Keynes, 1st Essays in persuasion Keynes CB, FBAessays in persuasion, was a British economist particularly known for his influence in the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics. Keynes married Russian ballerina Lydia Lopokova in NB: Not to be confused with his father who also was an economist.
See John Neville Keynes. Search review text. Pedro Jorge. Author 1 book 20 followers. And when one of the most brilliant polemicists of the 20th century is at his best, you'd better sit back and enjoy the master-class. This book, compiled in and consisting of articles, essays, excerpts and chapters going back tois essential reading for any one who pretends essays in persuasion have an idea of what Keynes meant and stood for.
As Philip Cortney essays in persuasion it in his The Essays in persuasion Munich"this extraordinary man is a mixture of statesman and economist for whom monetary and economic doctrines must be political instruments of the art of governing men.
Granted, the General Theory is a labyrinth of fallacies, dirty polemics and conflicting definitions. But it was published inwhen Keynes was already one of the most widely acclaimed men of public affairs in the whole world.
Essays in Persuasion is the real deal. This is where you feel the sting. Proceed with caution, for indeed the man is persuasive and that might actually be a good, essays in persuasion, albeit counter-intuitive reason for starting with the General Theory: the present book is just too dangerous for innocent economists.
At least the General Theory will leave you confused; this one might leave you in awe for "the Master". Let me give you some nice quotes in order as they appear in the book. Austrian economists are specially invited you can find the whole book separated in chapters here : "It is the method of modern statesmen to talk as much folly as the public demand and to practise no more of it than is compatible with what they have said, trusting that such folly in action as must wait on folly in word will soon disclose itself as such, and furnish an opportunity for slipping back into wisdom,—the Montessori system for the child, the Public.
He who contradicts this child will soon give place to other tutors. Praise, essays in persuasion, therefore, the beauty of the flames he wishes to touch, the music of the breaking toy; even urge him forward; yet waiting with vigilant care, the wise and kindly saviour of Society, for the right moment essays in persuasion snatch him back, just singed and now attentive.
The rest of this short chapter on "The Change of Opinion" is very much worth considering also] by the way, I skipped most of his factual discussions regarding the Versailles treaty, as well as some excerpts on monetary theory that were taken from A Tract on Monetary Reform. His famous "long-run we're all dead" catchphrase is not included in the present compilation, despite having originally appeared in the Tract - and not in the General Theory, as people are usually wont to think His 2 page chapter on "Inflation" is magnificent even though, from what I understand, subsequent scholars have not been able to trace the quote therein attributed to Lenin, essays in persuasion.
Such changes have produced in the past, and are producing now, the vastest social consequences, because, as we all know, when the value of money changes, it does not change equally for all persons or for all purposes. A man's receipts and his outgoings are not all modified in one uniform proportion. Thus a change in prices and rewards, as measured in money, generally affects different classes unequally, transfers wealth from one to another, bestows affluence here and embarrassment there, and redistributes Fortune's favours so as to frustrate design and disappoint expectation.
How can I adopt a creed which, preferring the mud to the fish, exalts the boorish proletariat above the bourgeois and the intelligentsia who, with whatever faults, are the quality in life and surely carry the seeds of all human advancement? Even if we need a religion, how can we find it in the turbid rubbish of the Red bookshops? It is hard for an educated, essays in persuasion, decent, intelligent son of Western Europe to find his ideals here, unless he has first suffered some strange and horrid process of conversion which has changed all his values.
There are the Trade-Unionists, once the oppressed, now the tyrants, whose selfish and sectional pretensions need to be bravely opposed. There are the advocates of the methods of violence and sudden change, by an abuse of language called Communists, who are committed by their creed to produce evil that good may come, and, since they dare not concoct disaster openly, are forced to play essays in persuasion plot and subterfuge. There are the Socialists, who believe that the economic essays in persuasion of modern society are evil, yet might be good.
And some germ of what would come to be called "keynesianism" is indeed already present, together with its awful vices. Take a look at this naive macroeconomic view: "But not all credit-creation means Inflation. Inflation only results when we endeavour, as we did in the war and afterwards, to expand our activities still further after everyone is already employed and our savings are being used up essays in persuasion the hilt.
Prosperity, in so far as it is governed by monetary factors, depends on these various price levels being properly adjusted to one another, essays in persuasion. When put this way, the Keynesian logic is bound to win the essays in persuasion as it surely does in Keynes's brilliant "The Economic Consequences of Mr. Churchill",warning against a foolish return to gold convertibility at the pre-war parity. But the problem is the distorted, hampered labor market which causes the unemployment and thus the need for the unemployment dole His discussion of tariffs and international trade and finance also showcases his statesmanship and his intention to above all safeguard the British economy and the British international position.
He was a political strategist and from that perspective there is a lot of great insights that you can take from this book, as long as you try to put things in due context. So, all that being said, do not doubt for a moment that I took lots of disagreeing notes while reading this book. But, as you can see in the title, these are "Essays in Persuasion", and the author surely manages to show his artistic capabilities in the craft of persuading, thus deserving 4 starts for his entertaining and thought-provoking, sometimes nerve-wrecking selection of polemics.
Much more could be said, as with all things Keynes-ian I read this book because it contains the essay "Economic possibilities for our grandchildren", written in Keynes predicts on that essay that within years time mankind would solve its economic problem thanks to the increases on productivity, and would be able to cover the absolute needs leaving much more time for leisure.
The author distinguishes between absolute needs and relative needs. The needs of food, water essays in persuasion shelter, are absolute on the sense that we feel them whatever the situation of other human beings may be. Other needs satisfy the desire for superiority, and Keynes thinks that those may be insatiable, but he arrives to the essays in persuasion that once the absolute needs are covered, we will prefer to devote our energies to non-economic purposes.
This is where his prediction, at least until now, has failed. The consumerist society where we live has convinced us that a second car, essays in persuasion, a bigger house or a flat TV will give us more satisfaction than more leisure time.
I only hope that this will change before and the prediction becomes true in due time. The other essays are also extremely interesting, visionary for the time and even applicable today. In his essay "Proposals for the reconstruction of Europe" he says, literally, "A Free Trade union should be established under the auspices of the League of Nations of countries undertaking to impose no protectionist tariffs whatever against the produce of other members of the Union".
He was proposing this union for the countries of central and southern Europe, and he hoped that the UK would also become an original member. Some lines after, he writes: "By fixing he Reparation payments well within Germany's capacity to pay, we make possible the renewal of hope and enterprise within her territory" When you see, in 20 lines of a essay, an early proposal of the European Union and a measure that could have avoided WWII, you get convinced that Keynes was a visionary genius.
Other interesting essays are the series about the return to the gold standard and its effects. UK returned to the gold standard in the s, and this produced an increase on the value of the pound. UK exports became less competitive and the trade balance suffered. Keynes never agreed with the return to the gold standard, or with the policy of the government to restrict credit, essays in persuasion.
He argued that the credit restriction would lead to a vicious circle where the investment would decrease, unemployment grow and wages essays in persuasion be lowered, affecting internal consumption. The benefits on the trade balance would be minimal compared with the disadvantages of a growing unemployed population. It seems to me that the similarities between the situation in Keynes' time and today, and the accuracy of his forecasts, should make us look more into the recipes that he proposed almost years ago and have proved successful since then.
Although this book was written between the World Wars, it is very much a book of our time. It has insight into where we are currently, what we ought to be doing now, and where we could well go next. There are three aspects of the book that are worth noting: 1. In the s, the great currency question was German reparations. This is very similar to our current pattern of sovereign indebtedness.
In both cases, essays in persuasion, the currency question - which is, essentially, a monetary question - led to an asset bubble. In andthose asset bubbles burst. The contagion flowed from the monetary economy into the real economy with recession being the result. In the s, governments responded by austere means. That essays in persuasion has been repeated, particularly in the Eurozone. Fiscal contraction has simply worsened the recession rather than encouraging a return to growth.
The path to recovery will be paved by fiscal expansion. This happened in the US in the s, and is starting to happen in the US and UK now. Europe seems to be mired in a recessionary induced deflation, and one wonders how their debt will ever be repaid.
This takes us back to the question of reparations. Keynes writing is a joy to read. Some of the concepts he discusses are quite abstract, but he manages to put over the point with great clarity. Today, he would be seen as a great communicator. In my opinion, this book has as much relevance today as it had when it was written. Perhaps that is why we are seeing a revival of Keynes? How important is Keynes for the today's economy. My favorite economist, and one of the most important ones. A truly exceptional intellect, essays in persuasion.
The only amazingly frustrating thing about the book is that someone thought it was appropriate to use a typeface so large that you get dizzy.
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Essays In Persuasion by Keynes, John Maynard. Publication date Topics RMSC Collection digitallibraryindia; JaiGyan Language English. Book Source: Digital Library of India Item blogger.com: Keynes, John Maynard blogger.comioned: TZUser Interaction Count: K In the light of subsequent history, Essays in Persuasion is a remarkably prophetic volume covering a wide range of issues in political economy. In articles on the Versailles Treaty. John Maynard 4/5(1) Essays In Persuasion written by legendary author John Maynard Keynes is widely considered to be one of the top greatest books of all time. This great classic will surely attract a whole new generation of readers. For many, Essays In Persuasion is required reading for various courses and blogger.com by:
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