Product Description
With contributions from Bertrand Russell, Thorstein Veblen, Sidney Webb, Bertil Ohlin and other great minds of the age, the collected papers in these volumes include contemporary reviews, academic assessments and scholarly essays on all of Keynes' published works from 1913 through 1940. The final volume provides an extensive array of tributes, obituaries and assessments written shortly after Keynes' death. ... Read more

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This work presents an alternative reading of Keynes' economic and political discourse viewed from the joint perspective of literary scholars and economists. The contributors argue that Keynes' discourse should be considered as a unified whole. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Keynes made good use of formal analysis and understood that BOTH the atomic and organic view of economics was partly applicable
This book is a collection of essays based on Anna Carabelli's bizarre views that (a) Keynes was anti mathematical and against the use and application of all formal methods of analysis in economics and social science when ,in fact, Keynes objected only to mathematical methods in economics and social science based on additivity and linearity ,(b) Keynes was a ordinary(common) language proponent like the later Wittgenstein ,and (c)Keynes believed that economic interdependenceswere organic in nature so that it was impossible for inductive and analogical methods,based on pattern recognition,to lead to any understanding,explanation or perspective on the behavior of the economy as a whole.

Carabelli based her misbeliefs on a very,very sloppy reading of Part I of Keynes's A Treatise on Probability (TP,1921) plus some other scattered pages of the TP apparently read randomly.In Part I of the TP,Keynes talks about "non numerical" probabilities.Carabelli,following Ramsey,comes to the queer belief that Keynes's probabilities used no numbers.In fact,Keynes developed an interval estimate technique based on his critique of and response to Boole's original interval estimate approach contained in his 1854 The Laws of Thought.The formal and technical analysis is contained in chapters 15,16,and 17 of the TP.Keynes then applies his technique in chapters 20 and 22 on pp.235-237 and 253-255,respectively.Keynes then presented an original non additive,nonlinear approach to decision makking in chapter 26 of the TP in the form of his conventional coefficient of risk and weight ,c.

Keynes was also keen to explained his formal analysis to the layman.However,this has nothing to do with Keynes being a " ordinary (common) language " methodologist or philosopher.Keynes,like the great physicist Boltzmann,sought to explain his technical work in a clear fashion.For example,Keynes gives the lay amn reader of the GT a clearly written out explanation ,on pp.208-209 in Section IV of chapter 15,of the technical analysis presented on pp.304-306 of chapter 21 of the GT in ht eform of elasticity analysis.Keynes is correct that the elasticity analysisdoes not provide a better explanation than the English language discussion.Either source provides an explanation.However,only the technical analysis provides a proof that would be accepted by a 1930's economist who was an expert in elasticity analysis.Unfortunately,it turns out that only A C Pigou had the
understanding of the technical details but could not accept th edistinction between risk and uncertainty which was fundamental.

Keynes summarily rejected Carabelli's third claim out of hand on pp.310-311 of the TP.

The book is interesting because it allows one to observe how highly technical presentations made by Keynes in the GT and TP were ignored by mathematically illiterate,inept,and innumerant economists both in the 1930's and later in the 1980's,1990's and 2000's based on the bizarre belief of F P Ramsey that Keynes put forth a theory of probabilitythat used no numbers.The result has been a economic " Tower of Babel "as one babbling economist after another purports to"Interpret" what it was that Keynes really meant in the TP and GT. ... Read more

Product Description
In a series that presents critical appraisals of influential economists from the 17th century to the present day, this four-volume collection of critical assessments on John Maynard Keynes covers the period 1981 to 1989. The literature on Keynes has accelerated in the last decade and its focus of attention has altered out of all recognition compared to the commentaries of the half-century 1936-1981. The secondary literature of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s might be fairly summed up as "trying to make sense of what Keynes meant in "The General Theory". The new literature on the other hand, is largely content to leave this work to one side, and treat his "Treatise on Probability" as his only great work. The burden of recent books and articles about Keynes suggest that rather than assuming a "break" between the early and the late Keynes, there was instead a constant thread of doubt and scepticism about the possibility of rational economic calculations running all through his writings from the beginning. A coherent philosophical vision coloured every word he wrote, a vision that declared war against all manifestations of positivism and empiricism. ... Read more

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These eight volumes provide immediate access to the intellectual processes of the greatest and the most influential economist of the twentieth century. ... Read more

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Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

the poorest publishing work I've ever seen
The book in itself is very interesting, a lot of people should read it in those times of economical crisis... but I wonder how Kessinger Publishing (I almost typed Kissinger :-) dare to publish it like this. Ok, it's a quite rare book and we can estimate ourselves fortunate to find it in a new reprint... But the problem is that this edition is not a new reprint, it's just a photocopy of the original published by New Republic Inc in 1926 in a bigger printing with an awful yellow cover... Basically, it's a photocopy and it could be fine, some publishers do that, particularly for the hard-to-find books. But usually they do it properly, Kessinger Publishing don't. It's an awful photocopy from a Library copy, we can even see the classification number!!! Fortunately, there are no marks and notes from ill-mannered readers but some characters are missing or are almost obliterate (just on one page or two). But the worst is coming : it's a poor photocopy and on each page you can see around 5% of the previous page. Yes, you did read correctly. So basically, Kessinger Publishing never heard about scissors and of course, never heard about OCR. For a little 144 pages book, it's not laziness, it's a swindle!
I do love real books with real pages, and I like to have the one which I consider as important... Keynes' "Laissez-faire and Communism" is one of them, and as I said, it's worth the reading, but you'd better to do the photocopy yourself and why not the OCR process... It will be less expansive for sure, and you can only do a better job. I keep this copy preciously because I laughed so much when I opened it, and it will be for sure an object of amusement for my friends. ... Read more

Product Description
Originally published in 1922.This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Keynes Continued to be Right
John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946)wrote REVISION OF THE TREATY in 1922 as a response to the critics of his book THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF PEACE. Keynes effectively refuted his critics whose arguements were so weak that they had to resort to ad hominem arguement. Keynes simply amplified his earlier book and vindicated his THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF PEACE. Keynes was clear that REVISION OF THE TREATY is a sequel to the earlier book.

Keynes reviewed the circumstances of World War I and briefly gave readers a precise of the problems that the Versailles Treaty imposed not only on the defeated Germans but also the "allies."Keynes had three years to observe events further research the economic conditions in Europe.Keynes also took advantage of the extension of claims against the Germans and gave his readers a current assessment (current in 1922)of the exaggerations of "allied" claims imposed on the Germans especially those of the French.

An example of Keynes careful observations was the revised situation of coal markets before and after World War.Keynes comments that demands on Germans to pay part of their reparations in coal at first caused a coal shortage and then a glut of coal on Euroepean markets especially in Western Europe.

Another problem that Keynes warned of was the distortions in international currency exchanges which were quite volitle after World War I.Keynes chided the French for their lying about their status in international currency.Readers must remember that world currencies were based on the gold standard unlike today.Keynes warned that the dislocations and impossible conditions imposed on the Germans could radically alter if not ruin currency exchanges. Note that the U.S. and Europeans went off the gold standard as Keynes implied they would.

Keynes treatment of conditions in Central Europe and the Soviet Union worth noting.While the Western Europeans were supposedly improving their economic conditions by 1922, conditions in Russia and Eastern Europe were severe.Keynes rightly attributed these conditions to artificial creation of make-shift regimes in Eastern Europe.For example there was no Poland from 1796 until 1919. The make-shift regimes of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, etc. did not exist prior to 1919.The government leaders imposed tarrifs, customs houses, etc. which were trade barriers whereby these areas were basically free trade zones when part of the Hapsburgh Empire. Such state creation showed the short sightedness of the Versailles diplomats and their refusal to forsee tragic unforseen circumstances.

Keynes examines the insane conditions imposed on the Germans.The Germans lost their merchant marine, their colonies, some of their coal regions, and some of their industrial regions.Yet, the "allies" expected starving Germans who lost means of prosperity and production were expected to pay reparations which were impossible.These conditons not only harmed the Germans, but these conditions eventually helped undermine European prosperity as well.

Keynes may have written this book as a hasty response to critics whom he answered very well.However, he should have been more clear in converting German currency to British pounds and U.S. dollars to give British and American readers a clearer picture of the amounts of money involved.Keynes does mention that the British pound was worth $4.00, but he should have compared U.S. currency to French and German currency.

Keynes should have briefly mentioned the pre-war (pre World War I) diplomacy and military events just prior and during World War I.For example, Belgium authorties were negotiating with British and French diplomats in 1913 to land French and British troops on Belgium soil to invade Germany in event of war with the Germans.The Germans knew this, and once the Belgium authorities engaged in these proceeding, they were no longe neutral.Keynes should have mentioned that the huge Russian moblization on the German border in 1914 was an act of war.International law provided that in event of a genral mobilization on a neighbor's border, the neighbor had a right to declare war to defend themselves.Readers should note that the French and British declared war on the Germans first raising the question of who actually started this war.

Keynes made the remark that some political "experts" stated that because the conditions of Versailles Treaty were impossible, they were harmless. Keynes was clear that these impossible conditions made the Versailles Treaty harmful to both the "winners" and losers.Readers should give this book the attention it deserves.Readers should also read THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF PEACE first to have a better understanding of REVISION OF THE TREATY.

JMK strikes again
Keynes' second book on the treaty. A defense of his original book and a chance to rebut critics of the original volume. ... Read more