Abstract
My attempt to evaluate the significance of The General Theory of employment interest and money will focus on the concept of effective demand beginning with a set of considerations vis à vis Classical and Marxian political economy. Indeed the principle of effective demand can be much more directly related to this body of thought rather than to Marginalist inspired doctrines. Furthermore Marginalism in its modern form has become so much devoid of conceptual content as to be challenged on methodological grounds by some of its most qualified practitioners (Clower, 1994; Malinvaud, 1995). In the process of the discussion it will be shown that Keynes was not wrong in dubbing all his predecessors as Classical. Finally, I will argue that during the long boom the level of aggregate investment has been determined in the main by external — non economic factors, thereby confirming Kalecki’s and Keynes’s sceptical views about the existence of endogenously created long-run propulsive forces.
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© 2016 Joseph Halevi, G. C. Harcourt, Peter Kriesler and J. W. Nevile
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Halevi, J. (2016). The General Theory after Sixty Years: History or Economic Laws?. In: Post-Keynesian Essays from Down Under Volume I: Essays on Keynes, Harrod and Kalecki. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137475381_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137475381_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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