Keynesianism in action

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the publication of John Maynard Keynes's seminal work "The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money". It was first published in February 1936. Keynes had expected his magnum opus to redefine economics and so it did, especially in the post-war years. Many see the demise of Keynesianism in the advent of Neoliberalism and its graduation to becoming the dominant discourse in contemporary economic thinking. Keynesianism, however, is still in action amidst the roadworks and the construction projects. 

Roadworks in Labour-controlled Hounslow Council
(Pics courtesy: alamy.com)

Hounslow Council, the place where I have been living nearly 17 years now is full of roadworks. Everytime I get past the barricades that separate the repairing pavements and parts of the road from the main way, I am reminded of John Maynard Keynes, one of the most influential personalities of our time. The broken tarmac,  the guarded pavements, the helmets and fluorescent jackets of the workers of Hounslow Highway are living examples of Keynesianism in action.

Spend more to create demand was the ethos of his demand-determined model. By then J B Say's tenet that "supply creates its own demand" had been diluted as an economic principle. Keynes also underlined role of the government in generating and enhancing demand, situating the state much beyond its conventional realm of managing the finances, law and order and foreign policy. All for generating the much needed demand to boost a post-depression economic order. Our teacher Kunja Behari Kundu, or KBK as he was generally known, likened "demand" with a bride as the groom followed her during the time of their marriage.

The threat of Communism was hanging over the Capitalist world and the Great Depression of the 1930s was good enough reason to impress upon the ordinary Europeans and also the world that Communism was a force to reckon with. If it couldn't alter the political landscape of Western Europe then a large part of the credit was due to Keynes. He was almost the saviour of Capitalism against Communist onslaught, and it was a coincidence of sorts that Keynes was married to Lydia Lopokova, a ballerina of Russian decent.

Keynes with wife Lydia Lopokova (Pics courtesy: Getty Images)

"Physics was too easy for me", Keynes once told his friend and physicist Max Planck, but had "an affection for Economics", then considered to be a science of the naysayers. He along with Virginia Woolf, E M Forster and Lytton Strachey were part of the Bloombury Group, who lived, worked and studied together at Bloomsbury near the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and the University College, London (UCL).

Was Keynes concerned or even bothered about his legacy? Probably not. His concern was more for the short-run. "In the long-run we are all dead", Keynes once famously said. And yet he lives and relives in the roadworks, the under-construction school buildings and new railway tracks even 70 years after his physical demise.

Tirthankar Bandyopadhyay is a journalist and media consultant. 
He can be contacted at tirthankarb@hotmail.com 
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