The Economic Consequences of the Peace, John Maynard Keynes

 

The Economic Consequences of the Peace by John Maynard Keynes is THE classic book in economic theory.  The "peace" was the end of World War I.

Started: 2/20/2021
Completed: 3/25/2021
Recommendation: Mild Recommendation
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

Keynes makes the reasonable argument that you have to invest in a disrupted economy in order for the economy to recover.  Keynes looked at the peace treaty that ended WWI and saw that Germany could not possibly meet the demands of the allies (indeed, the allies themselves could not meet the demands of each other).  He predicted that this would lead to starvation (it did) and that Germany would respond by printing money which would lead to hyper inflation (it did).  He spelled out a path that would have lead to a much better outcome (which was not implemented).  He did not have a crystal ball.  He just had facts.  He looked at the facts (as did the German commission which was tasked with evaluating the ability of the German people to meet the demands) and it was clear what would happen.  We need fact based government.