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Keynes and Capitalism

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  • Roger E. Backhouse
  • Bradley W. Bateman

Abstract

We analyze Keynes's thoughts on capitalism by focusing on what he wrote on the topic, using the Collected Writings, taken as a whole, together with some unpublished material to tackle three issues: what Keynes meant by capitalism; the fragility of capitalism; and the morality of capitalism. In doing this, we juxtapose materials written at different stages of his career. While the context and the theoretical framework within which Keynes developed his economic thinking changed substantially, our argument is that beneath these many changes in his circumstances and analytical frame lay a remarkably consistent attitude toward capitalism, an attitude in which morality was central. This view of capitalism is linked with the personal values that animated his life, especially the values that he shared with the other members of Bloomsbury.

Suggested Citation

  • Roger E. Backhouse & Bradley W. Bateman, 2009. "Keynes and Capitalism," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 41(4), pages 645-671, Winter.
    • Handle: RePEc:hop:hopeec:v:41:y:2009:i:4:p:645-671
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    Cited by:

    1. Pühringer, Stephan, 2016. "Still the queens of social sciences? (Post-)Crisis power balances of "public economists" in Germany," Working Paper Series Ök-22, Cusanus Hochschule für Gesellschaftsgestaltung, Institut für Ökonomie.
    2. Anna M. Carabelli & Mario A. Cedrini, 2010. "“Veiling The Controversies with Dubious Moral Attitudes”? Creditors and Debtors in Keynes’s Ethics of International Economic Relations," Working Papers 127, SEMEQ Department - Faculty of Economics - University of Eastern Piedmont.
    3. Philip E. Mirowski, 2012. "The Cowles Commission as an Anti-Keynesian Stronghold 1943–54," Chapters, in: Microfoundations Reconsidered, chapter 4, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Malcolm Warner, 2018. "Capitalism, without capital?," Asia Pacific Business Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 419-424, May.
    5. Carabelli, Anna & Cedrini, Mario, 2014. "Not Beautiful, not Just, not Virtuous; 'And It Doesn't Deliver the Goods'. Capitalism and “Fear of Goods” in Keynes's Thought," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201438, University of Turin.
    6. Roger E. Backhouse, 2014. "Hayek and Keynes," Chapters, in: Roger W. Garrison & Norman Barry (ed.), Elgar Companion to Hayekian Economics, chapter 5, pages 94-115, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Rivot, Sylvie, 2021. "Reading Keynes’s policy papers through the prism of his Treatise on Probability: information, expectations and revision of probabilities in economic policy," OSF Preprints s5qp9, Center for Open Science.
    8. Ötsch, Walter & Pühringer, Stephan, 2015. ""Der Markt" und seine Politische Ökonomie: Ordoliberale und 'Österreichische' Konzepte," Working Paper Series Ök-08, Cusanus Hochschule für Gesellschaftsgestaltung, Institut für Ökonomie.

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