ECONOMIC THOUGHT SINCE KEYNES by M. Beaud&G. Dostaler

I am really enthusiastic about the XX century history thats why one the books which I have chosen and has caught my attention is The Economic Thought Since Keynes by M. Beaud&G. Dostaler.

This book was originally published in French as La pensée économique depuis Keynes: Historique et dictionnaire des principaux auteurs by Seuil in Paris 1993 - English version was published in 1995 by Edward Elgar Publishing Limited in London.

Before I begin I would like to go back to seventeenth and eighteenth century, where history shows us problems, also of economic nature, which accompanied the local economies, where, together with the development of financial markets and labor, the importance of speculative factors, and glottalization has increased. These factors have improved the whole progress of liberalization which have reached some kind of peak in the nineteenth century and the “invisible hand of the market” introduced by Adam Smith has led to regular crises of overproduction. Countries, while trying to neutralize the business cycles, progressively limited market regulations in aid of state intervention. All these factors contributed to the formation and some genius thoughts - here for example by John Maynard Keynes. His General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money have given kind of background for new doctrine as a response to the Great Depression in 1929 called interventionism.

Those famous names in economic world have been appearing in specific time - in time of recession or crisis. Milton Friedman? Robert Mundell? Neo‑liberal ideas an answer for ineffective Keynesian mechanism of which were adopted in many developed countries after the collapse of the Bretton Woods system and the oil crises. We also know this as monetarist theory and from practical point of view as thatcherism and reaganomics. Also is good to mention about big name such us Karol Marx, which scientific bases were used in the communist country - Soviet Union as alternative solution for sympathizers of Keynes or Friedman theories.

This lead me to some reflections about latest crisis which sheds new light and new questions about the form of state protectionism. Subprime crisis came from the United States and it's global nature and effects may became a stimulus for the birth of a new economic order of the XXI century. Probably 2007-2009 world crisis will lead to the building of new solutions for neo-interventionism state and socio-economic freedom, and it will require the united cooperation of all participants in the global economy in order to avoid such recession in the future. One question comes up.... do we already can match any big names to current recession?

To explain what happened in 2007 I would like to introduce a fantastic movie produced by Jonathana Jarvisa - "Crisis of Credit Visualized”

http://www.crisisofcredit.com enjoy!

M.