A Critique Of Keynesian Economics

'All of us need help in understanding Keynes's brilliant, but often opaque, contributions to theory and policy. These essays provide a scholarly, balanced yet provocative assessment and critique.' Sir Alan Walters This book represents, for the first time a collection of classic appraisals of Keynesian economics' impact on economic theory and policy that will be of use to all students of macroeconomics and the history of economic thought. Don Patinkin's assesses Keynes early life and focuses attention on Keynes's contribution to monetary economics. Axel Leijonhufvud takes the view that the Keynesian revolution began and stayed on the wrong track. Leland Yeager refutes the idea that Keynesian economics was responsible for the general prosperity in the industrialised world immediately after the Second World War. Karl Brunner is critical of Keynes's reliance on fiscal rather than monetary policy. Terence Hutchison defends Keynes, both against his critics and against Keynesians! Patrick Minford traces the roots of neoclassical economics, back to The General Theory. Stephen Littlechild offers an alternative to Keynesian economics by focusing attention on the Austrian school.

This book was originally published by Macmillan in 1936. It was voted the top Academic Book that Shaped Modern Britain by Academic Book Week (UK) in 2017, and in 2011 was placed on Time Magazine's top 100 non-fiction books written in English since 1923. Reissued with a fresh Introduction by the Nobel-prize winner Paul Krugman and a new Afterword by Keynes’ biographer Robert Skidelsky, this important work is made available to a new generation. The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money transformed economics and changed the face of modern macroeconomics. Keynes’ argument is based on the idea that the level of employment is not determined by the price of labour, but by the spending of money. It gave way to an entirely new approach where employment, inflation and the market economy are concerned. Highly provocative at its time of publication, this book and Keynes’ theories continue to remain the subject of much support and praise, criticism and debate. Economists at any stage in their career will enjoy revisiting this treatise and observing the relevance of Keynes’ work in today’s contemporary climate.

Possibly the strangest phenomenon in all of economics is the absence of a long tradition of criticism focused on Keynesian economic theory. Keynesian demand management has been at the centre of some of the worst economic outcomes in history, from the great stagflation of the 1970s to the lost decade and more in Japan following the expenditure program of the 1990s. And once again, following the Global Financial Crisis, it is incontrovertible that no stimulus program in any part of the world has been a success, each one having been abandoned as conditions deteriorated under the weight of public sector spending. This book brings together some of the most vocal critics of Keynesian economics. Each author attempts to explain what is wrong with Keynesian theory in ways that can be understood by those seeking guidance on where to turn for a more accurate explanation of the business cycle and on what to do when recessions occur.

LARGE PRINT EDITION! More at LargePrintLiberty.com. Henry Hazlitt confronted the rise of Keynesianism in his day and put together an intellectual arsenal: the most brilliant economists of the time showing what is wrong with the system, in great detail with great rigor. With excerpts from books and articles published between the 30s and 50s, it remains the most powerful anti-Keynesian collection ever assembled.

"Published under the auspices of the Ludwig von Mises Institute." Includes bibliographical references (p. [225]-243) and index.

This is a new release of the original 1960 edition.

John Maynard Keynes, then a rising young economist, participated in the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 as chief representative of the British Treasury and advisor to Prime Minister David Lloyd George. He resigned after desperately trying and failing to reduce the huge demands for reparations being made on Germany. The Economic Consequences of the Peace is Keynes' brilliant and prophetic analysis of the effects that the peace treaty would have both on Germany and, even more fatefully, the world.

"In this unsparing analysis of the theories of John Maynard Keynes, W. H. Hutt explains why Keynes' ideas attracted both practical politicians and ardent academics and why they do not square with the logic of long-accepted laws of economics. Professor Hutt outlines methods by which modern economies can extricate themselves from the disasters into which Keynesian theory has plunged them. The popularity of Keynes' General Theory is explained by the fact that it provided scholarly justification for the inflationary programs that politicians had long wanted to pursue. For labor leaders and their politician friends, Keynes furnished support for the refusal to reduce wage rates and encouragement for the theory that wages should, in fact, be increased to provide more "purchasing power." As for the Keynesian claque that rapidly developed in the universities following the appearance of the General Theory, Keynes offered an economic theory so profound as to be inscrutable to all but the initiated-- and thus an exclusive cult was born. As Professor Hutt observes, "All too many people in all spheres-- the academic sphere not excluded-- are apt to accept obscurity for profundity." The chief danger of Keynesian economics, which Professor Hutt describes as an "untidy jumble of theorems," arises from the abuse of mathematical concepts by applying them to a science that is not mathematical in the development of its basic theorems. "Economists are capable of erecting impressive mathematical models upon conceptually confused foundations," Professor Hutt declares. "It has become obvious that Keynesianism, especially when it is combined with the policy of the welfare state, is destructive of labor incentives to productivity; and other disastrous, sociological results of the Keynesian experiment are being perceived, I think, by an ever-widening circle." The Keynesian Episode should serve to widen that circle even more. For almost half a century economic theorists have been embroiled in heated controversy over the so-called revolutionary ideas of John Maynard Keynes. Now, after the demonstrated failure of applied Keynesian economics in Great Britain and the United States, that controversy seems destined to be settled by cold realities as well as by cogent argument." --

This chapter discusses various past and future aspects of the global economy. There has been a huge transformation of the global economy in the last several years. Articles on the future of energy in the global economy by Jeffrey Ball and on measuring inequality by Jonathan Ostry and Andrew Berg are also illustrated. Since the 2008 global crisis, global economists must change the way they look at the world.