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What Can We Learn From Keynes the Investor?
Keynes’s legacy extends beyond theory to the world of action, speculation, and ambition
It is a strange thing to hear economists talk of ‘animal spirits’ who themselves appear to be animated by little more than elaborate, closed-off theories. There are more than enough economists who claim some insight into how economies operate without ever gaining first-hand experience of the market. Exposure to the markets is essential if we want a deeper understanding of the interplay between finance and economics. The two are intertwined, and one cannot be fully understood without the other.
When we invest our money and expose ourselves to the vicissitudes of the market, we are left with psychic imprints that stay with us through the rest of our investing lives. When markets tumble, we feel the sting through the loss of our own capital, and we are impelled to discover more of the mechanisms by which the market was driven down. Similarly, when markets are rising and all appears calm, we wish to learn what conditions bring about such fortuitous gains. Investing is learning, and you cannot learn how markets work without being an investor.
John Maynard Keynes is one of the most prescient economists of all time because he was also an investor. Not content merely to theorize, he…
