凯因斯(1883～1946年)

Keynes, John Maynard

受封为凯因斯男爵（Baron Keynes (of Tilton)）

英国经济学家，以针对长期失业原因而提出革命性经济学说而知名。父亲是杰出经济学者约翰.内维尔.凯因斯（1852～1949）。第一次世界大战时，在英国财政部任职，後来参加凡尔赛和会，因抗议「凡尔赛和约」的内容而辞职，後来在《凡尔赛和约的经济後果》一书中谴责了其条款内容。之後回到剑桥大学教书。1920年代、1930年代的国际经济危机促使他撰写了《就业、利息和货币通论》（1935～1936），为20世纪最具影响力的经济论文。他反驳自由放任的经济理论，并主张应付经济萧条的对策是扩大私人投资，或是创造公共投资取代私人投资。在轻度经济萎缩之中，利用较宽松的信贷和低利率的货币政策就可能刺激投资。在较严重的经济萧条时，需要利用公共工程或补助穷人、失业者的周详的公共赤字（参阅deficit financing）的严厉补救措施进行医治。许多西方民主国家实施了凯因斯的理论，美国尤其在新政时期推行了他的理论。第二次世界大战近尾声时，凯因斯致力於规画新的国际金融机构，1944年活跃於布雷顿森林会议中。

English version：

1883～1946年

Keynes, John Maynard

British economist, known for his revolutionary theories on the causes of prolonged unemployment. He was the son of the distinguished economist John Neville Keynes (1852-1949). He served in the British treasury during World War I and attended the Versailles Peace Conference. He resigned in protest over the Treaty of Versailles, denouncing its provisions in The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919), and returned to teaching at Cambridge University. The international economic crisis of the 1920s and '30s prompted him to write The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1935-36), the most influential economic treatise of the 20th century. It refuted laissez-faire economic theories, arguing that the treatment for depression was either to enlarge private investment or to create public substitutes for private investment. In mild economic downturns, monetary policy in the shape of easier credit and lower interest rates might stimulate investment. More severe crises called for deliberate public deficits (see deficit financing) either in the shape of public works or subsidies to the poor and unemployed. Keynes's theories were put into practice by many Western democracies, notably by the U.S. in the New Deal. Interested in the design of new international financial institutions at the end of World War II, Keynes was active at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944.