IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imk/fmmpap/88-2023.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Keynes' denial of conflict: why The General Theory is a misleading guide to capitalism and stagnation

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas I. Palley

Abstract

Keynes' General Theory was a massive step forward relative to classical economics, but it was also a step backward in its denial of the conflictual nature of capitalism. There is need to understand Keynes' technical contributions regarding the workings of monetary economies, but also need to understand the flaws within his thinking and the consequences thereof. Keynes made a fundamental contribution elucidating the mechanism of effective demand, and he also has claim to be the preeminent monetary theorist. However, owing to his denial of conflict, he had a flawed view of capitalism which is why establishment Keynesianism struggles to explain contemporary stagnation. That flawed view also undermines the case for Social Democracy. Contrary to conventional wisdom, his view of capitalism is supportive of Neoliberalism and Keynes can be viewed as a compassionate (Third Way) Neoliberal.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas I. Palley, 2023. "Keynes' denial of conflict: why The General Theory is a misleading guide to capitalism and stagnation," FMM Working Paper 88-2023, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:imk:fmmpap:88-2023
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.boeckler.de/pdf/p_fmm_imk_wp_88_2023.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Heise, Arne, 2023. "Keynes and the drunkard under the lamp post: Making sense of Palley," ZÖSS-Discussion Papers 103, University of Hamburg, Centre for Economic and Sociological Studies (CESS/ZÖSS).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Keynes; The general theory; conflict; capitalism; stagnation; bastard Keynesians;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B2 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925
    • B22 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Macroeconomics
    • B3 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought: Individuals
    • B31 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought: Individuals - - - Individuals
    • E00 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - General
    • P1 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:imk:fmmpap:88-2023. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sabine Nemitz (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fmbocde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.