Review of Crotty's "Keynes Against Capitalism" (forthcoming in ROKE) — Matias Vernengo

It should not be a surprise that John Maynard Keynes is often seen as being relatively conservative by many progressively inclined or radical economists, that often tend to prefer the views of Michal Kalecki, or the more radical approach of Keynes’ favorite disciple, Joan Robinson. That is not the case in James Crotty’s book Keynes Against Capitalism, who takes a diametrically opposite view. He tells us that: “It is almost universally believed that Keynes wrote his magnum opus, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money [GT from now on], to save capitalism from the socialist, communist, and fascist forces that were rising up during the Great Depression era”, but in his view, that “was not the case with respect to socialism. The historical record shows that Keynes wanted to replace then-current capitalism in Britain with what he referred to as ‘Liberal Socialism’” (Crotty, 2019: 1-2). His Keynes was anti-capitalist and, in some sense, a socialist. The notion that Keynes was a socialist often encounters as much resistance as the notion that he was somewhat conservative, of course....

If Crotty is to be believed, it looks like Keynes held that the government needed to control the commanding heights of the economy and to shape it for public purpose through policy, which is one way to look at socialism as an economic system. This view is closer to ordoliberalism than to classical liberalism.

Not long and worth a read. While not directly related to MMT is related indirectly. Rightly or wrongly, MMT is associated with Keynes, and it is arguably a synthesis chiefly of Post Keynesianism and institutional economics, although at least some MMT economists would take issue with this characterization.

Naked Keynesianism — Hemlock for economics students
Review of Crotty's "Keynes Against Capitalism" (forthcoming in ROKE)
Matias Vernengo | Professor of Economics, Bucknell University and formerly Senior Research Manager at the Central Bank of Argentina (BCRA) and an external consultant to several United Nations organizations like the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the International Labor Organization (ILO), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)