Introduction

In the first half of the twentieth century, John Maynard Keynes provided a theoretical explanation for the operation of a free-market economy. This theory and the associated practical conclusions are lost to society. The ‘Keynesian’ economics that is most closely associated with John Hicks, Alvin Hansen and Paul Samuelson has betrayed not only Keynes’s economic theory but also his policy conclusions. Throughout his life, Keynes was primarily concerned with monetary policy. Ultimately, Keynes set out debt-management, monetary and international financial policies that would facilitate the setting of appropriate rates of interest across the spectrum of liquidity.