Universal Man. The Seven Lives of John Maynard Keynes

Richard Davenport-Hines

Harper Collins, $49.99 I WOULD HAVE paid much more attention to Keynesian economics in lectures at uni if only I had known what an interesting life Keynes had lived.

Reading this book reminded me of the E.M. Forster quote; “The king died and then the queen died is a story. The king died, and then the queen died of grief is a plot.” Keynes’ life was like an imaginatively crafted plot. He was a true renaissance man, an erudite, cultured, bisexual genius.

But he was a flawed genius, just the way we like them to be. Keynes, who died 70 years ago this year, was a boy prodigy who later revolutionised economics and whose philosophies, once discredited, might now be able to put the world’s financial systems back on track.

For a time, economics was dominated by Keynes detractors, capitalist ideologues who believed laissez faire free market policies would result in prosperity and employment for all. It is now apparent that when money, like shit, hits the fan, it isn’t necessarily evenly distributed. Some government intervention is needed.

Come back Keynes – we need you. (MH)