From: GERALD LEVY (gerald_a_levy@msn.com)
Date: Thu May 08 2008 - 08:03:29 EDT
> There is a tendency to identify Keynesianism with state interventionism (see e.g. http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/un/1996/analysis.htm ). > However this ignores that state interventionism occurred before and after the Keynesian era, and need not have anything to do with Keynesian > economics specifically. Hi Jurriaan: Nixon quipped in 1971 "We are all Keynesians now". This wasn't quite true then and it certainly hasn't been true in the decades since. But, what could be said about economists is that "we are almost all state interventionists now". While you are right that state interventionism existed before the "Keynesian revolution", that "revolution" did represent a shift in thinking by the leading capitalist nations away from laissez faire. Of course, laissez faire was not practiced _in reality_ before that period but it was an ideology that much of the ruling class bought into and hence influenced state policy and non-policy. Since the advent of Keynesian policies (and the Great Depression) only a small handful of right-wing libertarians support laissez-faire. But, capital and the state are divided internationally over what form state intervention should take, e.g. should it be monetarist, supply-side, Keynesian, etc.? Unions and workers' parties too are divided over economic theories and policies, of course. In solidarity, Jerry _______________________________________________ ope mailing list ope@lists.csuchico.edu https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/ope
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