Talk:John Maynard Keynes

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John Maynard Keynes was a good article candidate, but did not meet the good article criteria at the time. Once the objections listed below are addressed, the article can be renominated. You may also seek a review of the decision if you feel there was a mistake. Date of review: No date specified. Please edit template call function as follows: {{FailedGA|insert date in any format here}}

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Contents 1 Main Contributions to Economic Thought 2 Fallacious Criticism 3 Henry Hazlitt has criticized Keynes 4 Kuznets 5 'Early Life' and homosexuality. 6 Influences on Keynes' works 7 Career Section 8 Keynes' transmogrification into a tiger 9 pronunciation 10 UK/US-centric 11 Good article review 12 Death 13 Inflation 14 Peerage 15 Succession Box 16 Keynes & Schacht 17 Cultural depictions of John Maynard Keynes 18 A Revision of the Treaty

[edit] Main Contributions to Economic Thought

"The errononeous assumption entertained by Keynes that inflation can only occur near full employment is still maintained in modern macroeconomics (NAIRU, New classical economics)." I don't think it is at all accurate to say this assumption is "still maintained" in modern macroeconomics, and the links provided don't support this claim.

[edit] Fallacious Criticism

The mention of the name of somebody, whether famous or not, constitutes a fallacy of authority. A statement does not become true or false on account of who made it. The validity of the statement must rest on empirical proof (when matters of fact are concenred)and with validity of logic (where arguments or meanings are at issue.) No matter how famous or obscure Henry Hazlitt may have been, his words have no validity merely because he has a name. The proper critic must discuss the issue and exhibit the flaw in either logic or in statement of facts. Why would we care what Hazlitt said?

Keynes is famous, but that fame is no proof of his intellectual ability. All people at all times may see that the earth lies still while the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, and yet everybody is making a false statement. The validity of the statement must be judged by epistemic methods of proof. Even if everybody on planet earth were to support Keynes, that would still not mean that he is correct. So it is not useful to be overawed by celebrity status (or authority status). Gani 20:05, 6 April 2006 (UTC)Gani

Will someone who is more knowledgeable on this subject please add something comparing/contrasting Keynes work and influence with that of the recently departed and massively influential Milton Friedman? After all, despite Nikita Kruschev's assurances, the Soviet "planned economy" has NOT buried the West and much of that can be thankfully ascribed to Friedman!

[edit] Henry Hazlitt has criticized Keynes

It should be noted that Keynes had no education in economics (a single undergrad term), and prided himself on not reading much on the subject. The General Theory is a mass of contradictions, of which Henry Hazlitt was "unable to find in it a single important doctrine that is both true and original. What is original in the book is not true; and which is true is not original". Hazlitt has written a thorough and devastating chapter-by-chapter critique in The Failure of the New Economics

who the hell is henry hazlitt - some random. we're talking about KEYNES here you know 82.35.34.24 00:05, 10 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Kuznets

I added a see also to Simon Kuznets, a contemporary, whose is sometimes credited with facilitating the "Keynesian Revolution".

[edit] 'Early Life' and homosexuality.

The first thing the reader of this article sees in Keynes' biography as it was is that he was homosexual. This item does not warrant having such a prominent and unnecessary placement in this article. First and foremost, Keynes was a brilliant economist - let us not cloud people's understanding of him by first telling them he was gay. It introdues unnecessary bias right off the bat.

I have not deleted the 'information' in the 'Early Life' section, I merged it all into the 'Marital Life' section, where it's inclusion is warranted, and indeed, the information was pretty much already there.

Note that I did not remove the 'Early Life' section so much as the information that was in it and now there is nothing left in the early life section. Perhaps something about his childhood would warrant the section's return?

As far as I know, Keynes wasn't gay, but he liked to experiment without shackles and didn't matched the "modern" Westerner's view of black and white painting. Stern 12:38, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Influences on Keynes' works

There should be a brief description on how this authors have influenced Keynes works.

Please see the article 'Rescuing Keynes from Jevons and Marshall'Gani 20:05, 6 April 2006 (UTC)Gani

[edit] Career Section

Something seemed to have happened there, and indication was a good part of it was removed. Checking through the last few edits I could not find where this was done, so I merely snipped off part of it and left the rest. Could someone fix this? Wally 12:41, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

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This is a very poor article. I am currently ploughing through Skidelsky's biography. When I have finished I will rewrite this article. Adam 07:50, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

Please consider amending the text about 'vague stagflation criticisms' at the end. Even if it were a meaningful thing to say, Keynes's legacy is dealt with in other articles. Wragge 00:25, 2005 May 12 (UTC)

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Any discussion on Keynes that leaves out the American economic advisor to FDR, Kenneth Galbraith, and Keynes' influence on Galbraith and Galbraith's adoption of Keynes' theories and the application of said theories on the most powerful economy of the 20th century, is surely missing one of Keynes' most influential contributions to history. a proper discussion should leave the reader with a legacy with which they can continue their study of keynes. Galbraith is that legacy.

[edit] Keynes' transmogrification into a tiger

I had not previously read, during my studies in modern economics, that Keynes transformed into a tiger prior to his moving to India. Could someone with a better knowledge of Keynes' life please verify this? 12.6.230.117 21:43, 16 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] pronunciation

What is the correct pronunciation? Seemingly, the pronunciation in the German Wikipedia differs from which is given here. Stern 12:34, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

In England, we pronounce it as 'Canes'.

Dr. Barry Worthington

And that's the pronunciation given in the "Pronunciation of Titles and Surnames" section in Debrett's Correct Form (except that it transcribes it "Kaynes"). Proteus (Talk) 19:08, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] UK/US-centric

I changed the sentence "ideas had a major impact on modern economic and political theory as well as on UK and US government fiscal policies" to one that reads "ideas had a major impact on modern economic and political theory as well as on many governments' fiscal policies."

I did this to correct the usual UK/US-centrism that was present in the original.

[edit] Good article review

I have to note that this article misses the mark for being considered a Good article on a couple of grounds: 1. Need for sources matched to specific statements; remember, not only should Wikipedia provide a means to verify statements, but hopefully allow readers to advance their own research. Most notably the following statements need sourcing:

• Keynes' homosexuality. I would assume that this is thoroughly documented somewhere; can we have a cite to a book or a chapter in a book for this?
• Who is Robert Lekachman, the person quoted about Keynes' nerve & mastery? Is he a biographer, a friend, or Keynes' milkman?
• The details about Keynes' investment skills & actions. Again, this shouldn;t be that hard to provide a source for.
• Keynes is quoted several times. Where did he say or write these comments?

2. Keynes cornering the market in pesetas. When I read that "he managed to put together—with difficulty—a small supply of Spanish pesetas", I can't help thinking that we are talking about at most a few hundred coins. And even if he managed to gain control over the equivalent of a few million Sterling/Dollars' worth of pesetas, I don't see how this would affect the value of the peseta in a significant way. This example needs more elaboration -- & a cite. 3. Despite all of the above, the final section -- "Critique" -- was the decisive element. As it now reads, this is little more than a list of people or works that disagree with Keynes. (Although the brief discussion of his feud with von Hayek is entertaining.) Either get rid of it, or make an effort to explain their POVs.

Having said that, the current material is strong enough to build either a Good article or a Featured article from; it just needs more work. Good luck with the writing. -- llywrch 21:33, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Death

The short para on his death repeats information about his brother already stated at the start of the article. I think it should be in one place or the other, my preference would be at the start. Any opinions? Beest 15:22, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

The article does not give the year or date of this death, at least as far as I could find. This should be prominent - either in this section or at the top. Stevemidgley 05:10, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Inflation

"The erroneous assumption entertained by Keynes that inflation can only occur near full employment is still maintained in modern macroeconomics (→NAIRU)." This is not assumed in modern economics and I do not belive it was assumed by keynes. Inflation can occur at or near zero cyclical unemployment. Structural unemployment is a different issue and is fully dealt with in modern macroeconomics. Long term unemployment and high inflation are normally because of structural problems according to modern theory.

[edit] Peerage

Was his a hereditary title? I've not seen internet sources made before 12 October 2004 which say "1st Baron". The internet pages which do add "1st Baron" are mainly encyclopedia sites, which I am reluctant to use as evidence, and the links at the bottom of the article don;t make mention of the ordinal. Would it not be all right to remove the ordinal until a link/source which mentions it be found? 202.89.139.117 13:03, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

Seem to have found something, though far from official: NY Times article of April 22, 1946, "His place in economics and finance was formally recognized in 1942 with publication of the King's Birthday Honors naming him first Baron of Tilton."

202.89.139.117 13:03, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

Gazette PDF for anyone who wants it. I'll remove the ordinal for the mean time.

It was a hereditary peerage. The first modern (non-Law Lord) life peerages weren't created until the passage of the Life Peerages Act 1958. Proteus (Talk) 18:41, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Succession Box

What do the "New creation" and "extinct" in the succession box mean? 24.126.199.129 09:34, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

It means he was made a hereditary peer but did not have any sons to pass the peerage onto. — Dunc|☺ 09:46, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Keynes & Schacht

Does anyone know the relationship between Keynes and Hjalmar Schacht? Their economic policy seems to be the same to me.--Nemesis1981 20:17, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cultural depictions of John Maynard Keynes

I've started an approach that may apply to Wikipedia's Core Biography articles: creating a branching list page based on in popular culture information. I started that last year while I raised Joan of Arc to featured article when I created Cultural depictions of Joan of Arc, which has become a featured list. Recently I also created Cultural depictions of Alexander the Great out of material that had been deleted from the biography article. Since cultural references sometimes get deleted without discussion, I'd like to suggest this approach as a model for the editors here. Regards, Durova 17:52, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] A Revision of the Treaty

Does anyone care to de-redden the link to his post-WW1-paper A Revision of the Treaty, that is, create an article about that? I believe it to have been a rather important and influential publication at the time. I might get around to writing the article myself eventually, but it may take some months still - so feel free to do it before, if you are so inclined! :-) --82.207.217.245 11:25, 21 March 2007 (UTC)