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Keynes, Lerner, and the Question of Public Debt

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  • Tony Aspromourgos

Abstract

This essay examines Keynes’s views on public debt, taking as its point of departure his 1943 confrontation with Abba Lerner on the issue. It also exhaustively considers the wider intellectual relationship between the two men, as well as Keynes’s other commentaries on public debt in the 1930s and 1940s. The essay concludes that the key issue distinguishing Keynes’s rather more cautious view of feasible and desirable public debt trajectories, vis-à-vis Lerner’s position, is Keynes’s attentiveness to the psychology of the debt markets, which is, in turn, an expression of his sensibility toward theory versus practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Tony Aspromourgos, 2014. "Keynes, Lerner, and the Question of Public Debt," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 46(3), pages 408-433, Fall.
    • Handle: RePEc:hop:hopeec:v:46:y:2014:i:3:p:408-433
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Tony Aspromourgos, 2019. "The Past and Future of Keynesian Economics: A Review Essay," History of Economics Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 72(1), pages 59-78, January.
    2. Roberto Artoni, 2023. "Considerazioni sul patto di stabilita' e crescita (On the Growth and Stability Pact)," Moneta e Credito, Economia civile, vol. 76(304), pages 319-337.
    3. Stefano di Bucchianico, 2019. "A bit of Keynesian debt-to-GDP arithmetic for deficit-capped countries," Bulletin of Political Economy, Bulletin of Political Economy, vol. 13(1), pages 55-83, June.
    4. Alexandre Chirat & Basile Clerc, 2023. "Convergence on inflation and divergence on price-control among Post-Keynesian pioneers: insights from Galbraith and Lerner," EconomiX Working Papers 2023-4, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    5. Annamaria Simonazzi, 2021. "Germany's Two Models and the Long-Term Sustainability of the Eurozone," Annals of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi. An Interdisciplinary Journal of Economics, History and Political Science, Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, Torino (Italy), vol. 55(2), pages 129-154, December.
    6. Giuseppe Mastromatteo & Lorenzo Esposito, 2015. "The Two Approaches to Money: Debt, Central Banks, and Functional Finance," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_855, Levy Economics Institute.
    7. Françoise Drumetz & Christian Pfister, 2021. "The Meaning of MMT," Working papers 833, Banque de France.
    8. Teupe, Sebastian, 2020. "Keynes, Inflation, and the Public Debt: "How to Pay for the War" as a Policy Prescription for Financial Repression?," Working Papers 16, German Research Foundation's Priority Programme 1859 "Experience and Expectation. Historical Foundations of Economic Behaviour", Humboldt University Berlin.

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