Background

Born in Cambridge. Enjoys fine art, the Bloomsbury Group and eugenics.

Why I'm the best person for the job

The Financial crisis of 2007–2010 led to public scepticism about the free market consensus even from some on the economic right.

In March 2008, Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, announced the death of the dream of global free-market capitalism. In the same month macroeconomist James K. Galbraith used the 25th Annual Milton Friedman Distinguished Lecture to launch a sweeping attack against the consensus for monetarist economics and argued that Keynesian economics were far more relevant for tackling the emerging crises. Economist Robert Shiller had begun advocating robust government intervention to tackle the financial crises, specifically citing Keynes. Nobel laureate Paul Krugman also actively argued the case for vigorous Keynesian intervention in the economy in his columns for the New York Times.

Other prominent economists arguing for Keynesian government intervention to mitigate the financial crisis include George Akerlof, Brad Delong, Robert Reich, and Joseph Stiglitz. Newspapers and other media have also cited work relating to Keynes by Hyman Minsky, Robert Skidelsky, Donald Markwell and Axel Leijonhufvud.

[The text and image is taken from the Wikipedia page on John Maynard Keynes.]