John Maynard Keynes by Ethan Houston https://padlet.com/ethanzh/john en-us 2017-01-10 06:37:45 UTC 2025-11-21 17:16:42 UTC hello@padlet.com Early Life/Background ethanzh https://padlet.com/ethanzh/john/wish/146478979 Born to well-off parents in Cambridge, England in 1883, Keynes lived what many would call an easy life. Showing an early aptitude for arithmetic, Keynes was eventually offered a scholarship at King's College, where he eventually enrolled. Although he naturally lusted towards the study of philosophy, he was eventually convinced by Alfred Marshall to pursue the study of Economics. Keynes' father was a noted economist, who had relatively laissez-faire views on the economy when compared to Keynes' more aggressive views. Keynes father (John Keynes) drew inspiration from David Ricardo and Adam Smith, among others.]]> 2017-01-11 11:52:53 UTC https://padlet.com/ethanzh/john/wish/146478979 Investment Strategy ethanzh https://padlet.com/ethanzh/john/wish/146478998 Keynes had a knack for investing in the stock market. It is said every morning for thirty minutes he would do nothing but research the stock market. Keynes favored having a concise stock portfolio, meaning instead of spreading his assets very thin across several different unrelated industries, he rather invested his money in a handful of individual businesses in which he was very knowledgeable about how they functioned, and he predicted that they would do well in the future. 

As a result of this, Keynes preferred longer term investing to short term investing: “The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent".  Perhaps the best example of Keynes' investing prowess is the Chest Fund, which is the culmination of King's College's assets, and Keynes' investing genius. Starting from a measly 30 thousand British Pounds, Keynes managed to grow the fund to 380 thousand. This is made even more impressive by the fact that the market as a whole dropped 15% during this period. This period also included the Crash of 1929, and the buildup to World War II, events that would normally have caused a portfolio to do poorly, but the Chest Fund managed to avoid this through Keynes aggressive and decisive investing strategy.

 Keynes was able to make as much as he did in the stock market through his use of margin accounts (i.e. he would borrow money to invest, thus allowing him to make larger initial investments than he could otherwise, eventually resulting in an even high payoff). Keynes' Chest Fund is one of the earliest examples of what we now call a 'hedge fund’. 

]]> 2017-01-11 11:53:00 UTC https://padlet.com/ethanzh/john/wish/146478998 Keynesian Economics ethanzh https://padlet.com/ethanzh/john/wish/146479008 Keynes economic theories helped to inspire the economic policies in countries throughout Europe, America, and various other countries throughout the world from the 1940s to the mid-1970s. Keynes believed that in the midst of an economic depression, spending is more beneficial to the economy than saving. So, during an economic depression the government should borrow money and push that money into the economy, therefore providing jobs. If people save during an economic depression, that keeps even more money out of the economy, creating a vicious cycle of people losing their jobs, resulting in even more money being kept out of the economy. This theory conflicted with Adam Smith's laissez-faire economics. 

Beginning in the 1960s, there was a shift towards private interests, meaning that Keynesian economics were less relevant, as Keynesian economics make great use of government intervention. Keynes made little use of mathematics models in his theory, which led to skepticism. However, the worldwide economic depression of 2008 led to a global re-think of economic policies, causing Keynesian economics to return to relevancy. 

One way to best summarize Keynes' political theories is: "if an economy's investment exceeds its savings, it will cause inflation. Conversely, if an economy's saving is higher than its investment, it will cause a recession". Thus, an increase in government spending helps to decrease unemployment and aid in economic recovery. Going against traditional thinking during his time, Keynes was of the opinion that it is demand that influences the production of a good, rather than the supply. ]]> 2017-01-11 11:53:05 UTC https://padlet.com/ethanzh/john/wish/146479008 ethanzh https://padlet.com/ethanzh/john/wish/146479626 2017-01-11 11:57:48 UTC https://padlet.com/ethanzh/john/wish/146479626 Death ethanzh https://padlet.com/ethanzh/john/wish/146479741 Despite his poor health in his later years, Keynes continued to help sort out his old college's finances. In addition to this, he also helped to create an international monetary system that benefited the world economy. Ultimately being taken by a series of heart attacks, Keynes passed away in 1946 at the age of 62. He had no children]]> 2017-01-11 11:58:47 UTC https://padlet.com/ethanzh/john/wish/146479741 ethanzh https://padlet.com/ethanzh/john/wish/146689389 2017-01-12 03:07:19 UTC https://padlet.com/ethanzh/john/wish/146689389 Major Publications ethanzh https://padlet.com/ethanzh/john/wish/146689926 The Economic Consequences of the Peace - 1919
A Treatise on Probability - 1921
The Economic Consequences of Mr Churchill - 1925

The Economic Consequences of the Peace - 1929

The Means to Prosperity - 1933

The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money - 1936


Keynes' writings were generally skeptical, and didn't do too much to challenge laissez-faire economics, which were the norm at the time.  However, he opposed Britain's return to the gold standard, and his writings foretold the unemployment issue eventually faced by Britain's labourers. His writings eventually led to the abandonment of the gold standard in Britain.
]]> 2017-01-12 03:19:07 UTC https://padlet.com/ethanzh/john/wish/146689926 Ask Me Anything! ethanzh https://padlet.com/ethanzh/john/wish/148258264 2017-01-20 00:09:27 UTC https://padlet.com/ethanzh/john/wish/148258264