Keynes's General Theory for Today

Book excerpt: ÔAt a time of renewed interest in Keynes, this volume provides an illuminating and forward-looking collection of papers. They explain the meaning of KeynesÕs great contribution and also show how that contribution can be developed further for application to modern economic policy issues. Most important, the papers explain the ways in which KeynesÕs methodological approach is so different from that which continues to dominate mainstream economics and how productive it would be if that approach were applied to our modern experience.Õ Ð Sheila Dow, University of Stirling, UK ÔThis book celebrates the 75th anniversary of KeynesÕs General Theory, which has proved yet again to be an endless source of inspiration. These authors take The General Theory as a point of departure from which to address the problems of today from fresh perspectives. This volume is indeed Keynes for today Ð and tomorrow.Õ Ð Victoria Chick, University College London, UK ÔKeynesÕs General Theory for Today is a fine set of thoughtful and highly relevant essays. They relate several ideas of Keynes to todayÕs happenings, putting forward modifications and extensions to take into account both short-term and long-term happenings in advanced capitalist economies. Especially useful are the investigations of KeynesÕs revolutionary methods of reasoning in economics, long abandoned by orthodox economists, to the great detriment of our understanding of what is happening and what may be done about it. These essays should be required reading for students, teachers and policy makers alike.Õ Ð G.C. Harcourt, University of New South Wales, Australia The themes of this important new volume were chosen to mark the 75th anniversary of the publication of The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. The distinguished authors concentrate on the relevance of this seminal publication for macroeconomic theory, method and the politics of today. This is particularly pertinent as similarities with the 1930s are striking in terms of unemployment, low growth, financial fragility and the European monetary union resembling the gold standard. Illustrating new ways of understanding the importance of uncertainty in macroeconomics, particularly in view of the importance of finance and balance of payments imbalances within a monetary union, this book will prove a stimulating and challenging read for academics, researchers and students of macroeconomics, heterodox economics, and the methodology and history of economic thought.