This Day in Wall Street History: 1883 John Maynard Keynes is Born

This day in 1883 marks the birth of John Maynard Keynes, the groundbreaking economist who argued for the benefits of full employment and active government involvement in economic matters. Born in Cambridge, England, Keynes's early career centered on fiscally minded government work, both at home and in India. Following the close of World War I, Keynes began writing about various economic issues, publishing all-too prescient attacks on the decision to saddle Germany with heavy reparations. During this same period Keynes also began his increasingly critical investigation into then dominant fiscal policies, including "laissez-faire" economics. By the early 1930s much of the Western world was struggling through dire economic slumps, which only reinforced Keynes's belief that governments, rather than "natural" fiscal forces, should be relied upon to steer national finances. Keynes articulated these beliefs in The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1935-1936), a landmark work that informed Roosevelt's interventionist approach to ending the Depression. In 1944, the U.S. government called on Keynes to partake in the Bretton Woods Conference and help draft the blueprint for the post- World War II global fiscal order. Whatever his past success in shaping economic policy, Keynes's voice was largely drowned out by American leaders. Just two years after the conference, Keynes passed away in Sussex, England. source: www.history.com