Dr. Qvortrups Cab: The return of the Master

Obama and other heads of state rely on John Maynard Keynes’ theories when they let public finances bleed red ink in attempts to put an end to the crisis. Learn about Keynes and where the theory may go wrong.(John Maynard Keynes, Milton Friedman, rescue packages, stimulus packages, financial crisis, Barack Obama, Gordon Brown, monetary-policy crisis, economic crisis, Dr Qvortrups Cab, leaders, top leaders, finance minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Secretary of the Treasury)

Obama and other heads of state rely on John Maynard Keynes’ theories when they let public finances bleed red ink in attempts to put an end to the crisis. Learn about Keynes and where the theory may go wrong.

By Mads Qvortrup. Cameraman/editor Jan Rørkær. Produced by: Anette von Benzon, avbenzon@jyskebank.dk

John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) was the architect of the welfarestate. But after the 1970s he was ridiculed by writers such as Milton Friedman who favoured unfettered market forces to state intervention in the economy.

But now Keynes is back.

The ideas behind the stimulus packages enacted by governments around the world were not the dreamed up by economists in the financial departments. Rather they were the intellectual property of John Maynard Keynes. This would not have surprised Keynes himself. For, as he wrote in The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936):

'Madmen in authority...are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribler many years ago".

Bio: Professor Mads Qvortrup

Mads Qvortrup received his doctorate in philosophy from University of Oxford in 1999. He served as an adviser to the British government and a speech writer for Tony Blair, among others. Currently Mads Qvortrup is attached to the UN as a peace mediator in the Sudan, where earlier this year (2009) he was a member of a task force sent by Barack Obama.

Mads Qvortrup is the author of five books on politics, including a book on Danish prime ministers, Fogh, Kragh, Schlüter og Stauning (Borgen 2009), as well as A Comparative Study of Referendums  (Manchester University Press 2005). He has written for such newspapers as the  Guardian, the Glasgow Herald and the Sunday Express, and he often appears as an expert on BBC World and Danmarks Radio (Danish Broadcasting Corporation).

In addition to being a journalist and adviser, Mads Qvortrup taught for five years at the world-famous London School of Economics and was a guest professor at the University of Sydney in Australia.

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