Contents
Acknowledgments xii
1 Introduction: was Keynes trying to save capitalism
or create "Liberal Socialism?" 1
PART I
From The Economic Consequences of the Peace to The General Theory 23
2 The Economic Consequences of the Peace: 1919 25
3 Making sense of chaos: 1919-1923 34
4 Public investment and state planning in 1924: the
real Keynesian revolution begins 48
5 The return to gold in 1925: deflation, social justice,
and class struggle 63
6 Three important "essays in persuasion" on the proper
economic role of the state: 1925-1926 70
7 Destructive competition, corporatism, industrial policy,
and the new economic role of the state: 1927-1928 84
8 Britain's Industrial Future and the Board of National
Investment: a detailed analysis of the institutions to be used by the state to regulate capital accumulation in pursuit of full employment under Liberal Socialism 95
x Contents
9 On the edge of the Great Depression: Keynes continues his efforts to gain political support for the radical policies in
Britain's Industrial Future 116
10 Keynes on "insane" financial markets and the emergence
of stagnation in the USA in the early 1930s 136
11 National self-sufficiency:1933 152
PART II
The General Theory: the ultimate defense in theory
of Keynes's radical policy agenda 159
12 Methodology and ideology: Keynes versus the classicists 161
13 The priority of high-unemployment long-run equilibrium
or "secular stagnation" in The General Theory 172
14 Upon further reflection: Keynes on secular stagnation
in 1937 201
15 Keynes versus the classicists on the effects of wage and
price deflation 209
16 Keynes versus the classicists on disequilibrium processes
in the bond market 221
17 Chapter 12 of The General Theory: the "insane" stock market,
capital investment, and instability 239
18 The theory of the business cycle in chapter 22: integrating
the profit rate and the bond and stock markets in a theory of financial and economic instability 264
19 Are the "models" Keynes created in The General Theory
compatible with the IS/LM interpretation of the book? A digression 269
20 Keynes's radical policy views in The General Theory 291
PART III
State planning, public investment, and Liberal
Socialism after The General Theory 311
21 From The General Theory until Britain entered WWII:
1936-1939 313
22 Keynes and government postwar economic planning for
"Liberal Socialism" during the war: 1939-1945 326
23 Thoughts on the relevance of Keynes's work to solving
today's economic problems: the society-economy nexus, methodology, theory, and policy 366
References 379
Index 383