1. “The Classical Medicine”

The “contribution” of Keynes that his disciples most often insist upon as valid and “permanent” is the substitution of “full employment” as the goal of economic activity rather than the “maximum production” of the classical economists.

We shall ask here three main questions about “full employment.” 1. Is it definable? 2. Is it attainable? 3. Is it— at all times and under all conditions—even desirable?

1. Is It Definable?

No analysis of Keynesian economics would be complete without at least some discussion of what is variously called “aggregrative” economics, “macro-economics,” and “the national income approach.”

1. Do Deficits Cure Unemployment?

In our chapter-by-chapter analysis of Keynesian theory we have had occasion to examine in passing the implied Keynesian policies and their probable consequences. But it may now be useful to discuss some of these main policies more explicitly.

In the present book we have followed the exposition and argument of the General Theory as Keynes presents it. This means that the argument has taken a winding course, often involving repetition. The reader may find it helpful, therefore, if we now briefly summarize some of the main negative or positive propositions in each chapter.

Chapter I. Though Keynes has been praised as the peer of Adam Smith, Ricardo, and even Darwin, not a single important doctrine in his work is both true and original.

There must be hundreds of economic books that may be variously described as Keynesian, pro-Keynesian, quasi-Keynesian, semi-Keynesian, or “post-Keynesian,” and there must be thousands of such pamphlets and articles; but there is a great dearth when we come to any literature since 1936 that may be described as definitely anti-Keynesian—in the sense that it is explicitly and consistently critical of the major Keynesian doctrines. In the works of such writers as Ludwig von Mises, F. A. Hayek, Wilhelm Röpke, Frank H.

THE 1919 PROPHECIES 1

A few months ago The London Economist remarked that “Many people will be turning to read or reread Lord Keynes’s ‘The Economic Consequences of the Peace.’ They will find the task rewarding, not so much for the brilliant analysis of the ‘economic consequences’ as for the inspired account of the ‘peace’ itself and the process

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COMPARISONS OF MARKET PRICES OF SOUTHERN RAILWAY CO. DEFERRED ORDINARY SHARES

INTEREST RATES AND BUSINESS CYCLES

It was the contention of John Maynard Keynes, still accepted by many academic economists, that interest rates are a purely monetary phenomenon. In his own words: “The rate of interest is the reward for parting with liquidity for a specified period... a measure of the unwillingness of those who possess money to part with their liquid control over it.”