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The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money
General Theory cover (first edition).jpg
AuthorJohn Maynard Keynes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreNonfiction
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Publication date
1936
Media typePrint paperback
Pages472 (2007 edition)
ISBN978-0-230-00476-4
OCLC62532514

The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money of 1936 is a book by English economist John Maynard Keynes. It caused a profound shift in economic thought, giving macroeconomics a central place in economic theory and contributing much of its terminology – the "Keynesian Revolution". It had equally powerful consequences in economic policy, being interpreted as providing theoretical support for government spending in general, and for budgetary deficits, monetary intervention and counter-cyclical policies in particular. It is pervaded with an air of mistrust for the rationality of free-market decision making.

Keynes denied that an economy would automatically adapt to provide full employment even in equilibrium, and believed that the volatile and ungovernable psychology of markets would lead to periodic booms and crises. The General Theory is a sustained attack on the classical economics orthodoxy of its time. It introduced the concepts of the consumption function, the principle of effective demand and liquidity preference, and gave new prominence to the multiplier and the marginal efficiency of capital.

Keynes's aims in the General Theory