John Maynard Keynes is the great British economist of the twentieth century whose hugely influential work The General Theory of Employment, Interest and * is undoubtedly the century's most important book on economics--strongly influencing economic theory and practice, particularly with regard to the role of government in stimulating and regulating a nation's economic life. Keynes's work has undergone significant revaluation in recent years, and "Keynesian" views which have been widely defended for so long are now perceived as at odds with Keynes's own thinking. Recent scholarship and research has demonstrated considerable rivalry and controversy concerning the proper interpretation of Keynes's works, such that recourse to the original text is all the more important. Although considered by a few critics that the sentence structures of the book are quite incomprehensible and almost unbearable to read, the book is an essential reading for all those who desire a basic education in economics. The key to understanding Keynes is the notion that at particular times in the business cycle, an economy can become over-productive (or under-consumptive) and thus, a vicious spiral is begun that results in massive layoffs and cuts in production as businesses attempt to equilibrate aggregate supply and demand. Thus, full employment is only one of many or multiple macro equilibria. If an economy reaches an underemployment equilibrium, something is necessary to boost or stimulate demand to produce full employment. This something could be business investment but because of the logic and individualist nature of investment decisions, it is unlikely to rapidly restore full employment. Keynes logically seizes upon the public budget and government expenditures as the quickest way to restore full employment. Borrowing the * to finance the deficit from private households and businesses is a quick, direct way to restore full employment while at the same time, redirecting or siphoning

General Equilibrium Theory studies the properties and operation of free market economies. The field is a response to a series of questions originally outlined by Leon Walras about the operation of markets and posed by Frank Hahn in the following way: OCyDoes the pursuit of private interest, through a system of interconnected deregulated markets, lead not to chaos but to coherence OCo and if so, how is that achieved?OCO This is always an apt question, but particularly so given the OCyGlobal Financial CrisisOCO that emerged from the operation of market economies in the Americas and Europe in mid to late 2008. The answer that General Equilibrium Theory provides to the Walras-Hahn question is that, under certain conditions coherence is possible, while under certain other conditions chaos, in various forms, is likely to prevail. The conditionality of either outcome is not always well understood OCo neither by proponents of, or antagonists to, the OCyfree market positionOCO. Consequently, this book attempts to show something of what General Equilibrium Theory has to say about the wisdom or otherwise of always relying on OCymarket forcesOCO to manage complex socio-economic systems. Sample Chapter(s). Chapter 1: General Equilibrium Theory: An Overview (138 KB). Contents: General Equilibrium Theory: An Overview; Existence of Equilibrium: Sufficient Conditions; Existence of Equilibrium: Necessary Conditions; Equilibrium and Irreducibility: Some Empirical Evidence; Existence of Equilibrium Under Alternative Income Conditions; Existence of Walrasian Equilibrium in Some NonOCoArrow-Debreu Environments; Uniqueness of Equilibrium; Stability of Equilibrium; Optimality of Equilibrium; Comparative Statics of Equilibrium States; Empirical Evidence on General Equilibrium; General Equilibrium Theory in Retrospect. Readership: Advanced undergraduates and graduate students in economics; economists interested in economic theory."