The Theoretical and Political Importance of the Economics of Keynes: Or, What Would Marx and Keynes Have Made of the Happenings of the Past 30 Years and More? (2009)

I start with two propositions: first, that Maynard Keynes and Karl Marx, were they still with us, would have made far more sense of the happenings of modern capitalism of the past 30 to 40 years than do the more modern approaches to macroeconomics of the same period; and, second, that Keynes would have sat down and tried again to save capitalism from itself.† (Marx may have rubbed his hands and hoped that its demise, so often predicted by him and his followers, was at last on hand – but I would not bet on this.) It may surprise you that I couple Keynes and Marx together, but I would argue – the evidence is supplied in a fine book by Claudio Sardoni (1987) – that when Marx and Keynes examined the same issues in the capitalist process, they came up with much the same answers. Perhaps, on further reflection, this should not be surprising, for along with Michal Kalecki and Joseph