In this article we explore the intellectual origins of John Maynard Keynes’s “Economic Possibilities” by introducing evidence of its parallels to a similar utopian message in H. G. Wells’s obscure ...didactic novel, The World of William Clissold (1926). Drawing upon archival evidence from Keynes and Wells’s own contemporary exchanges, we bring to light a largely unnoticed intellectual dialogue between the two authors that took place from roughly 1926 to 1934 through their published works, letters, and public and private conversations. The context provided by this dialogue sheds light upon the authors’ shared interests in the “scientific” ordering of society, and in particular a vision of the future that relied heavily upon proactive eugenic planning. These findings point to an under-acknowledged eugenic dimension to Keynes’s essay that emerges more openly from his contemporary exchanges with Wells as well as in several unpublished works and letters by both men. In addition to contextualizing a number of the intentionally vague predictions and prescriptions in “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren,” these findings establish deeper eugenic commitments in Keynes’s beliefs than previously thought and extend them into the mature phase of his economic writing.
Present at the Creation BALASUBRAMANIAN, ADITYA; RAGHAVAN, SRINATH
Journal of world history,
03/2018, Letnik:
29, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
This article considers India’s participation in the Bretton Woods conference, where the framework for the post-World War II global economic order emerged. Building on the new historiography of ...Bretton Woods as well as a more specialized literature on the Indian economy, it shows India’s role in Bretton Woods at the confluence of national, imperial, and global historical processes. The article argues that India’s presence in the conference shaped the evolution of the country’s relationship to international economic institutions. The article addresses India’s changing role in the British Empire and world economy, the evolution of a discourse of Indian economic development alongside anti-colonial nationalism, the formulation of Indian objectives for the conference in the aftermath of the economic dislocations of World War II, and the interpretation of the outcomes of the meeting at home that informed India’s subsequent ambiguous relationship with international economic organizations.
Resumo Este artigo examina a interpretação da teoria econômica de John Maynard Keynes inspirada na obra de Piero Sraffa sobre os preços. Após breve introdução, a segunda seção considera até que ponto ...o multiplicador, tal como proposto por autores sraffianos, exaure o princípio da demanda efetiva sem levar em conta a tradição de abordagem psicológica da economia desenvolvida em Cambridge, bem como a concepção de incerteza formulada na Teoria Geral. A terceira seção trata dos aspectos monetários do pensamento de Keynes e de sua compatibilidade com o conceito de preços de reprodução de Sraffa calculados com base numa taxa uniforme de lucro. Na quarta seção analisa-se a controvérsia sobre o retorno de técnicas, a sua conexão com a multiplicidade de taxas internas de retorno, bem como a relação entre configuração produtiva e distribuição de renda. Nas considerações finais, os pontos de bifurcação entre os paradigmas analíticos keynesiano e sraffiano são ressaltados.
Abstract This paper reviews the interpretation of John Maynard Keynes’s economic theory inspired by the perspective of Piero Sraffa’s work on prices. After some initial remarks, the second section asks whether the multiplier, as advanced by Sraffian authors, exhausts the principle of effective demand without taking into account the Cambridge tradition of economic analysis through psychological lenses, as well as the notion of uncertainty put forward in the General Theory. Section three deals with the monetary aspects of Keynes’s thought, examining its compatibility with Sraffa’s definition of normal prices assuming a uniform profit rate. The fourth section revises the controversy over the reswitching paradox, its connection with the multiplicity of internal return rates, and the relationship between productive structure and income distribution. The concluding remarks highlight the bifurcation points between the Keynesian and the Sraffian theoretical paradigms.
Far from being a synthetic reconstruction of authors and ideas, the history of economic thought is presented more as narratives interspersed with different perspectives. An example of this is Keynes, ...who built his general theory to oppose the Classical School, but covering the neoclassical theory. Despite objections to the solecism of Keynes, the history of economic thought was reckoned incorporating his definition but few exceptions. The aim of this paper is to analyze the main contributions to macroeconomic thinking from two different analytical cuts, the conventional synthesized by Joan Robinson and that of Keynes. Therefore we argue the use of these different perspectives on understanding of same contents, causes uncertainties in Macroeconomics stopping to adequately consider the overlapping and contradictory aspects of macroeconomic theories.
El presente artículo analiza la cuestión del producto máximo en la obra de Alfred Marshall, rastreando en ella afirmaciones comúnmente atribuidas a autores del siglo XX, como John Maynard Keynes ...—sobre el empleo, la demanda agregada y la distribución— y Joseph Schumpeter —sobre las virtudes del monopolio, la innovación tecnológica y la distribución—. El estudio se realiza a partir de dos ejes fundamentales para una perspectiva dinámica sobre el crecimiento: 1) el uso de los factores productivos —la existencia o no de capacidad ociosa de capital anclado y de mano de obra— y 2) el nivel de la acumulación, su calidad y las implicancias distributivas de la destrucción de capital físico. De este modo, se estudian comprensivamente los efectos inter-temporales acumulativos del pleno uso de los factores, de la inversión, la innovación tecnológica y el aumento de la productividad del trabajo. Se mostrará que Marshall identifica la existencia del desempleo involuntario, y la necesidad de una intervención estatal orientada a remediarlo. Al mismo tiempo, se presentará la formulación marshalliana de la destrucción de capital físico por innovación tecnológica, así como de la posibilidad de que el producto en condiciones de competencia perfecta sea menor al de condiciones monopólicas.
The 2008 recession restored Keynes to prominence. This account elaborates the misinformation that led to his repeated resurrection and interment since his death in 1946. Keynes was more open-minded ...about capitalism than is commonly believed, and his nuanced views offer an alternative to the polarized rhetoric evoked by the word “capitalism" today.
El concepto de John Maynard Keynes (1936) de “espíritus animales” o de “optimismo espontáneo” como una de las principales fuerzas que impulsan las fluctuaciones económicas se inspiró en parte por sus ...reflexiones y las de sus contemporáneos sobre las reacciones humanas ante situaciones ambiguas donde las probabilidades no podían cuantificarse. Existe evidencia de que, en situaciones tan inciertas, las personas permiten que narrativas populares contagiosas y las emociones provocadas por éstas influyan en sus decisiones económicas. Dichas narrativas no suelen basarse en hechos, pero son contagiosas. Los modelos macroeconómicos dinámicos necesitan una teoría que guarde relación con los modelos epidemiológicos de transmisión de enfermedades. Debemos tratar con seriedad el contagio de narrativas en los modelos económicos si queremos mejorar nuestra comprensión de los espíritus animales y su impacto en la economía.
We should learn from Keynes to focus on the macroproblems of our day. Today's problem is the financial crisis and the resulting great recession. Neither the standard Keynesian policies of decades ...past nor the monetary policy doctrine of recent years provides useful solutions. Dynamic stochastic general equilibrium theory is part of the crisis wreckage, but turning to old or to New Keynesian theory will be of little use. A balance sheet recession requires that policy address the problems in the private sector's capital as well as its income accounts. We need serious theoretical work on problems of system stability using, for example, agent-based methods. Monetary theory needs to develop analysis of processes in which intertemporal budget constraints are violated. Network theory will be useful in that quest.
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