The Keynes Solution: The Path to Global Economic Prosperity [Kindle Edition]

Paul Davidson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Paul Davidson is the keeper of the Keynesian flame. Keynes lives (intellectually), and Davidson is one of the reasons.”--Alan S. Blinder, Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economic and Public Affairs, Princeton University

 

“Paul Davidson has persistently attacked conventional economics for having ignored Keynes’s emphasis on uncertainty, and the use of money as a store of value, in causing economic crises.  In this lucid new book, he exposes the intellectual mistakes which led to the present world economic downturn, and shows how Keynes’s ideas can help bring about a ‘civilized economic society’.”

--Robert Skidelsky, author of John Maynard Keynes 1883-1946: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman

 

"Paul Davidson has given us a timely and lucid answer to the important question: What would Keynes have said?  He is particularly good on the disastrous condition of the mainstream economics, which ignored Keynes for decades, and is now exposed as having left us wholly unprepared for the crisis at hand."--James K. Galbraith, The University of Texas at Austin, author of "The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too." 

Product Description

Today’s financial crisis has led to a widespread lack of confidence in the laissez faire style of economic policy. In The Keynes Solution author Paul Davidson provides insights into how we got into the crisis—but more importantly how to use Keynes economic philosophy to get out of this mess. John Maynard Keynes was committed to making the market economy work—but our current system has been a dismal failure. Keynes advocated for an interventionalist government  role, in cooperation with private initiative, to mitigate the adverse effects of recessions, depressions and booms.  His economic policy helped the world out of the great depression and was an important influencer in the thinking behind FDR’s new deal policies.     In this book Keynesian expert Davidson makes recommendations and details plans for spending, monetary policy, financial market rules and regulation, and wages—all to reverse the effects of our past policies.   Keynes  renewed influence can be seen everywhere: in Barack Obama’s planned stimulus package, for example—and this book explains the basic tenant of Keynesian economics as well as applied solutions to today’s critical situation.

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 313 KB
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 1 edition (September 1, 2009)
• Sold by: Macmillan
• Language: English
• ASIN: B002O067ME
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #135,135 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #90 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Business & Investing > Economics > Theory

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Valuable Insights for Investors, June 21, 2010

By 

R. Farley - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Keynes Solution: The Path to Global Economic Prosperity (Hardcover)

This book is terrific. Like many investors, I am very wary of economic commentary because many commentators seem to be living in a parallel universe that has assumed away many of the practical realities that we see every day. Dr. Davidson's book not only discusses current economic issues in a pragmatic way, he also addresses the flaws and strained assumptions upon which policy makers have conducted economic policy. It takes someone who understands the flawed models of mainstream economics to illuminate these flaws for those of us who are merely observers.

Much more so than the Keynes solution itself, this book's greatest value comes from its insights into trade deficits, unemployment, the monetary system, and the realities of correcting trade imbalances. Many of the benefits of imports come at the cost of higher unemployment, and it is important to understand the real choices involved in addressing this situation.

Macroeconomic analysis can be frustratingly useless to investors. According to the famous investor Peter Lynch: "I've always said if you spend 13 minutes a year on economics, you've wasted 10 minutes." However, I sat down and read this book in one sitting, and I'd love to send it to Mr. Lynch, as it might just be the exception that proves his rule.

As a companion piece, I'd suggest Warren Buffett's 2003 article in Fortune magazine that originates Buffett's proposal of Import Certificates as a way to correct trade imbalances. Taken together, there is plenty of food for thought.

16 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Keynes Made Accessible and Relevant, September 6, 2009

By 

Scot Griffin (SF Bay Area, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Keynes Solution: The Path to Global Economic Prosperity (Kindle Edition)

Paul Davidson has done a remarkable job of explaining John Maynard Keynes' key insights, most of which he first introduced to the world in his seminal 1936 "General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money." Unfortunately, for Keynes, that book is fairly impenetrable, so the general public is essentially unaware that the economics movement that bore his name (i.e., "Keynesian") is, in fact, a synthesis of the classical economics that Keynes rejected and Keynes' less controversial ideas. In other words, Keynes' own name was hijacked by what were, essentially, classical economists.

This book is an easy read and easy to understand because it uses the recent economic crisis to compare and contrast neoclassical economics (best exemplified by Milton Friedman and the Chicago School) to true Keynesian economics. If you really want to understand Keynes' insights in detail, pick up a used copy of Anatol Murad's "What Keynes Means," which is a fantastic primer.

If you are interested in reading other accessible economics books by heterodox economists, check out Steve Keen's "Debunking Economics." Like Davidson, Keen is a Post Keynesian economist.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required reading, February 6, 2010

By 

Irven Rinard (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Keynes Solution: The Path to Global Economic Prosperity (Hardcover)

This is an excellent book and should be required reading for anyone who has even the faintest interest in economics and finance. It will give those who have not had the intellectual gumption to digest The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (which includes this reviewer and according to the author, Paul Samuelson)a reasonably clear picture of what Keynes was really trying to tell us. It also exposes some of the intellectual dishonesty that had pervaded economic theory in its quest to be considered a science. I will conclude this rant with the observation that this book is a fine counterpoise to all of the economic mumbo-jumbo we hear from most of our legislators as well as the majority of our CEOs