Just finished reading John Maynard Keynes: The economic consequences of the peace. This was a 1919 post WW1 analysis of the meetings of Versailles of which Keynes was a delegate. For all intensive purposes this book established him as an economist. Some argue the book established a general opinion that the treaty was a carthaginian peace. And, indeed it moved a large amount of american opinion against the treaty and involvement in the league of nations. Its fairly clear that a large number of the ideas put forward are pervasive in later thought - though it is plainly evident in the book that he had already made up his mind about a great many things before writing it. The book is worth reading - cautiously. While he has some remarkably brilliant and true recognition that the treaties and actions of allied powers with regards to reparations and other actions would harm Germany and the rest of the world he misses much of the big picture and spends far too much time delved into the obvious ridiculousness of some of the economic demands placed on Germany by the allies. He rightly asserts - as so many history books do now that overly stringent demands on an ideologically brazen nation could have disastrous consequences. This spills over from analysis on government printing money, price controls, debts, and inflation. TLDR: One of the few books by Keynes that is worth reading. But its still far from great or even correct on many particulars.
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 17:39:32 +0000
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