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.

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".