John Maynard Keynes was a terrible economist, but he understood politics and ideology quite well. He understood how political ideas gain influence and are communicated to the public. This was partly why he cultivated alliances with universities and sought to use scholars as a means of influencing government policy. Keynes understood that ideology and ideas generally filter down from academic institutions into the general public by way of mass media, school teachers, and political elites. Keynes knew that no one is immune from this process of transmitting ideas. For instance, he was not wrong