Death of John Maynard Keynes

John Maynard Keynes died on 21 April 1946 in Firle, aged 62. A British economist, Keynes became famous for criticizing the punitive Treaty of Versailles in The Economic Consequences of the Peace, written after he left the British delegation in 1919. His General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, published in 1936, argued that economies can remain stuck in prolonged unemployment and that governments should raise spending to boost demand in downturns. These ideas reshaped economic policy after the Great Depression and underlie Keynesian economics. He represented Britain at the 1944 Bretton Woods conference that created the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. A member of the Bloomsbury Group, he also invested successfully and supported the arts.

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