John Maynard, 1st Baron Keynes. 1883–1946, English economist. In The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936) he argued that unemployment was characteristic of an unregulated market economy and therefore to achieve a high level of employment it was necessary for governments to manipulate the overall level of demand through monetary and fiscal policies (including, when appropriate, deficit financing). He helped to found the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank