Amazon Web Services Scalable Cloud Computing Services. Because Keynes was writing for educated laymen, his essays are very accessible. great price for v-good transition book Please try again later, essays in persuasion. All of these, whether one agrees or not, provide fascinating insights into the issues. Marine ret. Fred Schwed.
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He built on and greatly refined earlier work on the causes of business cycles, and is widely considered to be one of the most influential economists of the 20th century and the founder of modern macroeconomics. His ideas are the basis for the school of thought known as Keynesian economics and its various offshoots, essays in persuasion. In the s, Keynes spearheaded a revolution in economic thinking, challenging the ideas of neoclassical economics that held that free markets would, in the short to medium term, automatically provide full employment, as long as workers were flexible in their wage demands.
He instead argued that aggregate demand determined the overall level of economic activity and that inadequate aggregate demand could lead to prolonged periods of high unemployment. According to Keynesian economics, state intervention was necessary to moderate "boom and bust" cycles of economic activity. Keynes advocated the use of fiscal and monetary policies to mitigate the adverse effects of economic recessions and depressions. Essays in persuasion the outbreak of World War II, Keynes's ideas concerning economic policy were adopted by leading Western economies. Keynes died in ; but, during the s essays in persuasion s, the success of Keynesian economics resulted in almost all capitalist governments adopting its policy recommendations. Keynes's influence waned in the s, partly as a result of problems with inflation that began to afflict the Anglo-American economies from the start of the decade and partly because of critiques from Milton Friedman and other economists who were pessimistic about the ability of governments to regulate the business cycle with fiscal policy, essays in persuasion.
However, the advent of the global financial crisis of –08 caused a resurgence in Keynesian thought. Keynesian economics provided the theoretical underpinning for economic policies undertaken in response to the crisis by President Barack Obama of the United States, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom, and other heads of governments. InTime magazine included Keynes in their list of the most important and influential people of the 20th century, commenting that: "His radical idea that governments should spend money they don't have may have saved capitalism. In addition to being an economist, Keynes was also a civil servant, a director of the Bank of England, a part of the Bloomsbury Group of intellectuals, essays in persuasion, a patron of the arts, an art collector, the founding chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain, a director of the British Eugenics Society, an advisor to several charitable trusts, a successful private investor, a writer, a philosopher, and a farmer.
Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by unknown [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. close ; } } this, essays in persuasion. getElementById iframeId ; iframe. max contentDiv. scrollHeight, contentDiv. offsetHeight, essays in persuasion, contentDiv. document iframe. Enhance your purchase. Exact facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. The essays in this volume show Keynes's attempts to influence the course of events by public persuasion over the period of 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 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, on the decline of laissez-faire, and the possibilities of economic growth are as relevant today as when Keynes originally set them forth.
Previous page, essays in persuasion. Print length. Martino Fine Books. Publication date. November 14, See all details. Next page. Frequently bought together. Total price:. To see our price, add these items to your cart. Choose items to buy together. This item: Essays in Persuasion. Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street. Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings. Customers who viewed this item also viewed. Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1. John Brooks. Philip A. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns Little Books, Big Profits. John C. Where Are the Customers' Yachts? Fred Schwed. The Clash of the Cultures: Investment vs. The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor Columbia Business School Publishing.
Howard Marks. Start reading Essays in Persuasion on your Kindle in under a minute. Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle hereor download a FREE Kindle Reading App. About the author Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations. John Maynard Keynes. Brief content visible, double tap to read full content. Full essays in persuasion visible, double tap to read brief content. Read more Essays in persuasion less. Customer reviews. How are ratings calculated? To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, essays in persuasion, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Top reviews Most recent Top reviews. Top reviews from the United States. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later, essays in persuasion. Verified Purchase. This is my favorite book which I've read by Keynes thus far. Beginning with his criticisms of the Versailles treaty, Keynes illustrates well the economic problems surrounding the ability to pay reparations including effects on all players. Keynes then attempts to explain his ideas for solving economic issues, most of which involve debt foregiveness bulk of which is on the USA, essays in persuasion. I wasn't really blown away by essays in persuasion of his alternative ideas, but the criticisms alone seemed to be dead on. Next the author spends time discussing the return to the gold standard primarily in the U.
and the issues involved with fixing the currency to gold at pre-war levels. Essays in persuasion criticism of Churchill again seems to be dead on in this respect. He warns of re-fixing the currency at such high levels without having actual price essays in persuasion adjusted first. While import prices were kept low, exporters were crippled by the need to lower prices to remain competitive internationally prior to the required essays in persuasion reduction in domestic costs and wages. This forced an intense deflationary stance by the U.
essays in persuasion interest essays in persuasion and policies to encourage unemployment so that wages may fall. Keynes suggested lowering rates as to cause a large buildup of gold in countries which already had competitive exports so that their prices would rise USA and France and their exports would be less competitive the theme of most of his arguments were based on encouraging a trade surplus. Further, high rates only encouraged saving at a time when real capital was in abundance. Fixed assets were already available, and for excess capacity to be put to use people needed to spend. This is the clearest argument for some kind of institutional spending during the bottom of the business cycle which I've encountered from Keynes.
While the subject requires far more work and is a subject today of controversy, Keynes makes an alluring argument for private or public institutional spending not necessarily just government spending based around expectations and uncertainty which may result in a downward economic spiral. If enough companies do this, a demand crisis could occur which is self-reinforcing. Other topics include the author's criticism of socialism I believe he calls it "turbid rubbish"political views, philosophy on how politics and economics essays in persuasion be balanced, and his vision of the economic future.
I've always enjoyed Keynes' style of writing, his criticisms both witty and humorous. Instead of jumping ahead to some of his later works, I'd start with this book if you're introducing yourself to this author. A very compelling collection of essays written and collected by Keynes from to Many essays in persuasion the essays address issues that are relevant to our current economic situation inand others are interesting for historical reasons. Because Keynes was writing for educated laymen, his essays are very accessible. Supplemental fact missed by some reviewers: this book is a facsimile copy of the collection Keynes produced in ; thus, complaints about errors found between the covers should not really be held against bnpublishing.
That said, the folks at bnpublishing. net are full of themselves and cannot even produce a back cover blurb without egregious grammatical faults and a type-o.
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To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Essays in Persuasion , please sign up. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of Essays in Persuasion. Mar 13, Pedro Jorge rated it really liked it Shelves: library , library-history , library-applied-economics , library-law-politics. 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 to , is essential reading for any one who pretends to have an idea of what Keynes meant and stood for.
As Philip Cortney put it in his The Economic 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 in , when 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, 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, 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 to 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. 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, 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 with plot and subterfuge. There are the Socialists, who believe that the economic foundations 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 to 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. When put this way, the Keynesian logic is bound to win the fight 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 flag 8 likes · Like · see review.
View all 6 comments. Jun 08, Pedro rated it really liked it. 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 or shelter, are absolute on the sense that we feel them whatever the situat I read this book because it contains the essay "Economic possibilities for our grandchildren", written in The needs of food, water or 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 conclusion 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, 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. He argued that the credit restriction would lead to a vicious circle where the investment would decrease, unemployment grow and wages would 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. flag 4 likes · Like · see review. Apr 15, Stephen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition Shelves: economics , politics. 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, the currency question - which is, essentially, a monetary question - led to an asset bub Although this book was written between the World Wars, it is very much a book of our time. In both cases, the currency question - which is, essentially, a monetary question - led to an asset bubble.
In and , those 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 mistake 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? flag 2 likes · Like · see review. Dec 22, Carlos rated it it was amazing. How important is Keynes for the today's economy. My favorite economist, and one of the most important ones.
View 1 comment. Nov 28, srdjan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition. A truly exceptional intellect. 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. The average sentence is probably 70 words, yet each line fits maybe 7 words. Anyway, some excerpts: "The power to become habituated to his surroundings is a marked characteristic of mankind" the nature of assemblies by which have have exalted some of the most distasteful of human qualities into the position of the highest virtues. man will be faced with his real, his permanent problem-how to use his freedom from pressing economic cares, how to occupy the leisure, which science and compound interest will have won for him, to live wisely and agreeably and well.
flag 1 like · Like · see review. Nov 07, Jonathan Norton rated it liked it. Collection of Keynes' writings published in , mostly concerned with topics that were already passing away as he recognised : Versailles and the German war reparations; war debts generally; the Gold Standard; the struggles of European governments to adjust to new post-war economic conditions and the temptation of damaging policies aimed at restoring pre "normality". The Economic Consequences Of Mr Churchill is here, with its residual interest as a reminder that Winston wasn't always gre Collection of Keynes' writings published in , mostly concerned with topics that were already passing away as he recognised : Versailles and the German war reparations; war debts generally; the Gold Standard; the struggles of European governments to adjust to new post-war economic conditions and the temptation of damaging policies aimed at restoring pre "normality".
The Economic Consequences Of Mr Churchill is here, with its residual interest as a reminder that Winston wasn't always great, and that finance ministers can be mugged by special interests. Some ideas that became "Keynsianism" are in prototype form here, but the most interesting sections are the ruminations on culture, the challenge of Soviet Communism, and the future. Ideas about "post-work" in the age of automated production are present here already. JMK was aware of the prevailing gloom about the crisis of European civilisation and all that, but he had a great reserve of liberal optimism to counter it with.
Jolly good chap, but take note of the traces of anti-semitism visible, all very respectably and discreetly expressed. Oct 05, B rated it liked it · review of another edition Shelves: own , westend. This is really a collection of Keynes' articles on a couple of economic subjects. Imagine if Paul Krugman wrote somewhat longer pieces. And then someone selected about 25 at random from a year period between and I know, not 10 years. That's roughly this collection. In today's environment, Keynes's argument for inflation to increase employment seems timely. And he can be an engaging writer—from time to time.
But some of the argument seems muddled by the dignified language. It is muc This is really a collection of Keynes' articles on a couple of economic subjects. It is much less direct than necessary. This is not reproduced well. New articles begin midway through a page with only a year in parenthesis to denote the change. There's not any sort of typographical indication e. And there are some places where there are numbers that appear to be substituting for some other character. Sep 26, Yemi Adesanya rated it it was amazing. What a clear-headed human! The compilation of essays by JM Keynes is best taken in instalments. It is an omnium gatherum of pellucid and well reasoned predictions, positions and commentaries on politics, economy, philosophy, and a bonus review of H.
Wells's book - The World of William Clissold. I will definitely read it more than twice. Sep 07, Peter Fox rated it really liked it. 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. All of these individuals were and are specialists in their field, and it is always interesting to read about them. Keynes' essays though allow us to delve deeper into his perception of the world and what could be done and what should The Essays in Persuasion is an interesting collection which is often referred to as prophetic. Keynes' essays though allow us to delve deeper into his perception of the world and what could be done and what should not be done on a macro level with finance, politics, population and their interactions; in one word, economics.
John Maynard Keynes was the one of the greatest economists of his day and is still viewed in the same light. Economics along with all other social sciences, sciences and mathematics continues to evolve as our perception, interactions, and instrumentations for analysis evolve. China, at its core and by the standards of its social contract is Keynesian at heart, and any time there is a blip in global markets, China reacts in that manner. There is though, a lot of push back against the growth fetish associated with Keynes' style of economic stimulation. Most importantly that is all it is - push back. Keynes was right. People need to work to give them the ability to develop and sustain themselves - pride and food are the individuals base sustenance.
This then filters into a community, region and nation with positive effect. The opposite also occurs when fiscal validity is reversed or removed, with the slowing down and or stagnation of the economy. An economy is no different to an ecosystem, while it is in balance it is sustainable, and when it becomes unhealthy it will need nutrition and guidance to bring it back into balance. Keynes' essays demonstrate all of these fascinating tools that economists and politicians can and should use to maintain and sustain the economy.
This is evident in Keynes' opinion on the gold standard, which is something akin to building a brick wall around a forest and wondering why it won't grow with the forest. The essays view on the treatment of debt, and especially the debt associated with World War 1 is revealing and fascinating. This item: Essays in Persuasion. Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street. Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings. Customers who viewed this item also viewed. Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1. John Brooks. Philip A. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns Little Books, Big Profits. John C. Where Are the Customers' Yachts? Fred Schwed. The Clash of the Cultures: Investment vs.
The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor Columbia Business School Publishing. Howard Marks. Start reading Essays in Persuasion on your Kindle in under a minute. Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here , or download a FREE Kindle Reading App. About the author Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations. John Maynard Keynes. Brief content visible, double tap to read full content. Full content visible, double tap to read brief content. Read more Read less. Customer reviews. How are ratings calculated? To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon.
It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness. Top reviews Most recent Top reviews. Top reviews from the United States. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. Verified Purchase. This is my favorite book which I've read by Keynes thus far. Beginning with his criticisms of the Versailles treaty, Keynes illustrates well the economic problems surrounding the ability to pay reparations including effects on all players. Keynes then attempts to explain his ideas for solving economic issues, most of which involve debt foregiveness bulk of which is on the USA.
I wasn't really blown away by any of his alternative ideas, but the criticisms alone seemed to be dead on. Next the author spends time discussing the return to the gold standard primarily in the U. and the issues involved with fixing the currency to gold at pre-war levels. His criticism of Churchill again seems to be dead on in this respect. He warns of re-fixing the currency at such high levels without having actual price levels adjusted first. While import prices were kept low, exporters were crippled by the need to lower prices to remain competitive internationally prior to the required corresponding reduction in domestic costs and wages.
This forced an intense deflationary stance by the U. high interest rates and policies to encourage unemployment so that wages may fall. Keynes suggested lowering rates as to cause a large buildup of gold in countries which already had competitive exports so that their prices would rise USA and France and their exports would be less competitive the theme of most of his arguments were based on encouraging a trade surplus. Further, high rates only encouraged saving at a time when real capital was in abundance. Fixed assets were already available, and for excess capacity to be put to use people needed to spend. This is the clearest argument for some kind of institutional spending during the bottom of the business cycle which I've encountered from Keynes.
While the subject requires far more work and is a subject today of controversy, Keynes makes an alluring argument for private or public institutional spending not necessarily just government spending based around expectations and uncertainty which may result in a downward economic spiral. If enough companies do this, a demand crisis could occur which is self-reinforcing. Other topics include the author's criticism of socialism I believe he calls it "turbid rubbish" , political views, philosophy on how politics and economics may be balanced, and his vision of the economic future.
I've always enjoyed Keynes' style of writing, his criticisms both witty and humorous. Instead of jumping ahead to some of his later works, I'd start with this book if you're introducing yourself to this author. A very compelling collection of essays written and collected by Keynes from to Many of the essays address issues that are relevant to our current economic situation in , and others are interesting for historical reasons. Because Keynes was writing for educated laymen, his essays are very accessible. Supplemental fact missed by some reviewers: this book is a facsimile copy of the collection Keynes produced in ; thus, complaints about errors found between the covers should not really be held against bnpublishing. That said, the folks at bnpublishing.
net are full of themselves and cannot even produce a back cover blurb without egregious grammatical faults and a type-o. My advice is to completely ignore the only thing they wrote the back cover blurb, which was clearly written by someone with a limited grasp of the English language! This edition does not do justice to John Maynard Keynes' legacy. It almost appears as if it were translated from a second language by a person who speaks yet a third language. It is really difficult to understand what he wrote for non-native English speaker. I have to spend a lot of time reading this repeatedly. I hope it is worth. There's a lot to like about J.
He brought the monetary corner of economics together in his General Theory. He warned the world loudly about the dangers of imposing crushing reparations on Germany after WWI. If only we had listened! He wrote a brilliant biography of economist Alfred Marshall in the form of an obituary, wrote lots of other good stuff and was a central figure in economics and in government for a long period spanning two world wars. However, Essays in Persuasion is not all that interesting. First of all, with the exception of the first essay, which is about the folly of imposing reparations on Germany, the rest are mainly about whether the U.
should stay on the gold standard or not, or should reflate or deflate the economy. As such, they deal with topics that were current and of vital importance during the period between the wars, but unless you happen to be very interested in economic history during this period, these ruminations are not very interesting now. Also, there is the fact that it is a bit difficult to keep up with Keynes mind, as he rumbles on in a sort of oblique sarcastic way about the advantages of rejoining the gold standard at one price versus another. Avoid this and pick up the General Theory instead, or read Alfred Marshall's bio. Jack Robinson GySgt. Marine ret. Long read but, filled with some good info. Gives details of world financial adjustments during early 20th Century.
Thank you. A very good book. One person found this helpful. Condition as stated. Only writing by Keynes worth reading unless you plan on publishing a critique of one of his many works. See all reviews. Top reviews from other countries. Essays in Persuasion are a collection of articles and public letters published by Keynes in the s 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. 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 , 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. In the introduction, Keynes humorously describes these writings as "croakings of a Cassandra more successful in prophesy than persuasion.
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