Economists - John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946)

Keynes is perhaps one of the best known of all economists. This is hardly surprising for two main reasons. The first is that his work was perhaps the most important work that had been done for decades and changed the whole face of post-war economic policy. The second, more flippant reason for his fame is that he is perhaps the only economist to have a whole branch of economics named after him. Though it would be nice to argue that Milton Keynes was named in tribute to the work of two great economists - Milton Friedman and John Maynard Keynes - it would be totally untrue! So Keynes remains the only person to be honoured in this way.

His main contribution to the economics debate of the time was in putting together a coherent critique of the existing classical economic theory that dominated policy-making circles. Keynes' father was an economist and his mother was Mayor of Cambridge for some time.

Keynes went to Eton (as a scholar) and then went on to King's College Cambridge to study Classics and Maths. He worked for a short time in the Civil Service but didn't like it much, and so left and went back to Cambridge as a Fellow. In 1911 he was made editor of the Economic Journal - Britain's foremost economics publication.

He was a varied character - not at all the stereotypical economist of people's assumptions. He married a Russian ballerina and was for much of his time a member of the Bloomsbury Group - a group of intellectuals whose ranks included well-known names such as Virginia Woolf, E.M.Forster and Bertrand Russell. He speculated considerably and as Bursar of King's College made the college very rich! He also acted as an advisor to a number of companies. In the Second World War he made his peace again with the Treasury. As a result he was instrumental in providing the framework for post-war economic recovery.

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