Sublime

Keynes was a failed investor and statistician who never studied economics but was so well‐connected with the ruling class in Britain that the embarrassing drivel he wrote in his most famous book, The General Theory of Employment, Money, and Interest, was immediately elevated into the status of founding truths of macroeconomics. His theory begins wi

All spending is spending, in the naive economics of Keynesians, and so it matters not if that spending comes from individuals feeding their families or governments murdering foreigners: it all counts in aggregate demand and it all reduces unemployment! As an increasing number of people went hungry during the depression, all major governments spent

Keynes, the British economist, had discovered in his work that economies are not machines. They have souls, emotions, and feelings. Keynes called them “animal spirits.”

The notion that the government can use fiscal policy—spending, tax cuts, or both—to “fine-tune” the economy was the central insight of John Maynard Keynes.

It is his analysis of animal spirits and the possibilities of public spending that have made Keynes the economist of the moment.