Introducing Keynes

Pugh's book is really a comic book exposition of Keynes the man and his life.Many of the pictures will hold the interest of the above average grammer school student.It presents a chronological history of Keynes from his birth to his death,fitting in details on Keynes's father,mother,brother,sister,friends,associates,economic ideas, and accomplishments along the way.The story is told in comic book style .One criticism of the book is the discussion of Keynes's "homosexuality"(Keynes up until 1922-23 would be more accurately categorized as gay-bisexual)on pp.24-25 and the summary contained on the backcover of the book.Pugh claims that Keynes was "...an open homosexual who later married a ballerina".There are two errors contained in this statement.First,Keynes was not open about his sexual practices with the general public.He was only open with his circle of close friends,the Bloomsbury group.Second,by the time Keynes married Lydia Lopokova,it was clear that he was straight and not gay.This conclusion is easily arrived at by anyone who has read the letters of correspondence between Keynes and Lopokova.

The great British economist John Maynard Keynes solved the riddle of the Great Depression - why the economy would not self-correct itself. Contrary to the false teachings of the extreme laissez-faire economists, severe instability in the economy had been witnessed for centuries and could never be explained or properly controlled. The Great Depression brought this issue to the forefront. Keynes had previously distinguished himself as a considerable economist. Then his General Theory ushered in the era of modern macroeconomics. Severe economics instability has never returned.Here is an overview I read on the Internet:"John Maynard Keynes remains the most brilliant and influential economist of the 20th century. His General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money overturned the conventional wisdom that a free market would automatically solve the problems of unemployment and economic depression. Keynes proposed that a healthy economy depends on the total spending of consumers, business and governments alike. "Alarmed by mass unemployment, governments throughout the capitalist world espoused Keynesian policies until they were superseded by monetarism in the 1970s. As the world veers towards slump again, is it time for Keynes to be revived?"'The illustrations are clever... the text is serious and well researched.'""'Financial Times'"