More of an examination of the 2008 Great Recession than a complete biography, but I must say the bigraphical details were fascinating. Just a bit long winded and difficult to read. ( )

Keynes, John Maynard (Subject)

This little booklet - perhaps monograph is the best word - is packed with interesting info and thought provoking ideas. First off, Skidelsky is clearly a fan: Keynes appears to have been not only a great mind but a nice bloke - rare combination. He had a moral conscience as well as a broad cultural background, unlike most economists - a paid up member of the Bloomsbury group he saw that economic activity had a point - the good life, which philosophers have been wondering about since the dawn of thought. And what is the good life? - friends, family and the enjoyment of the arts. He thought economic growth would reach an equilibrium where most needs were satisfied and we could all relax. That point does not seem to have happened, though Skidelsky argues that it still could: today's inequality distorts the figures. Keynes' humanism also lead him to oppose the mathematising of economics. Skidelsky shows how classical and neo-classical economists distort reality in order to make elegant models and equations seeming not to care about the distortions. The quants are still evidently in business today. Keynes also simplified: his main model omits foreign trade, which has been a significant factor since the Stone Age and ever more so today.

Does the Keynesian approach work? Skidelsky demonstrates that the period in which Keynesianism rode high (from 1945 Bretton Woods to its breakdown and the oil crisis in early '70s), the Western economies did better on most counts than in the subsequent years of Thatcher/Reagonomics. But his point is slightly weakened by the admission that policies at the time did not follow Keynes in all respects.

The most graphic image in the book is Keynes analogy for the stock market: voters at a beauty contest who vote not for the prettiest girl but for the one they think other people will think the prettiest. Of course this is a simplified model too: they could abstain, spoil their ballot-papers, or go round the corner and vote in a trans-gender contest instead. Or just buy some candy-floss.

It's aimed at the layman but even with my third of a degree in economics some parts were hard going. For example, the distinction between"risk" and "uncertainty" seems important but still escapes me. Still, inclines me to read more of Skidelsky and perhaps of Keynes himself ( )

Less on Keynes himself than I thought.

Don't bother reading this. Overly academic and pretentious - hard to read, poor description of ideas, almost nothing about the man himself. Worst book I've read for ages. ( )