Keynesian Reflections: Effective Demand, Money, Finance, and Policies in the Crisis
Toshiaki Hirai, Maria Cristina Marcuzzo, and Perry Mehrling
Abstract
The global financial crisis, which began in August 2007 and continues with no end in sight, has thrown macroeconomics into turmoil. The central purpose of this book is to suggest an alternative road for the future of macroeconomics without the illusion of automatic (albeit imperfect) adjustment toward an intertemporal general equilibrium with rational expectations. This book challenges the current mainstream macroeconomic tradition known as New Keynesian economics in so far as it shares common ground with the New Classical models. It is rather the Keynesian spirit, above all, that provides the ... More
The global financial crisis, which began in August 2007 and continues with no end in sight, has thrown macroeconomics into turmoil. The central purpose of this book is to suggest an alternative road for the future of macroeconomics without the illusion of automatic (albeit imperfect) adjustment toward an intertemporal general equilibrium with rational expectations. This book challenges the current mainstream macroeconomic tradition known as New Keynesian economics in so far as it shares common ground with the New Classical models. It is rather the Keynesian spirit, above all, that provides the linking theme for the papers in this volume, that were written originally for conferences held in Tokyo (2010, 2011) and in Florence (2012). Keynesian Reflections has been chosen as a title of this book to indicate that Keynes remains a relevant and vital starting point for understanding modern problems, as well as inspiration for inventing the new economics that modern problems demand. The distinguishing feature of the Keynesian approach is a conception of economics as extension of human possibilities, proposing remedies to safeguard the general interest as condition for prosperity and social harmony. His approach appeals to the principles of shared responsibility between debtors and creditors, collective action in place of individual self-interest, and the pursuit of individual liberties within a context of norms and rules. Keynes’s middle way between extreme liberalism on the one hand and pervasive government intervention on the other still appears a viable path towards equitable growth.
Keywords:
global financial crisis,
New Keynesian economics,
New Classical models,
government intervention,
equitable growth,
Keynesian approach,
alternative macroeconomics
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2013 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780198092117 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May 2013 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198092117.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Toshiaki Hirai, editor
Professor of Economics, Sophia University, Tokyo
Maria Cristina Marcuzzo, editor
Professor, Department of Statistical Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome
Perry Mehrling, editor
Professor of Economics, Barnard College, Columbia University, New York
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