‘Economic privation proceeds by easy stages, and so long as men suffer it patiently the outside world cares little.’
After the First World War, Keynes attended the Paris Peace Conference as a delegate of the British Treasury. However, after most of his suggestions were ignored, he resigned in protest and returned to Cambridge. After two months, he produced The Economic Consequences of the Peace. The book became a bestseller and formed the general opinion that the treaties established a “Carthaginian Peace” designed to crush Germany. Keynes, on the other hand, thought that the “Carthaginian Peace” was neither morally correct nor practically possible and proposed more generous peace terms that will aid the development of the future economy of Europe as a whole. Keynes’ warnings proved prophetic when Hitler came into power and the book cemented Keynes’ reputation as a leading economist.
John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) was a British economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the practice and theory of macroeconomics. He is considered to be one of the most influential economists of the 20th century.