Thank you for this brilliant insight and, I think, a must do for America. Republican desire to give undeserved political power and influence to corporate executives, who never pay a price for their corporate greed, and give corporations the rights of an individual without our ability to punish the executives, has put a knee on the neck of America, and the working class is screaming that they can’t breath. Rampant inflation and economic control by Big Oil combined with grossly over inflated profits is literally killing the middle class. I agree with you completely.
Corporations are not people, and until humans see through the blatant efforts to divide us, we will be subject to corporate power wielded by the super rich, and, since money is speech: we will have no voice, and no power to self govern. As we have seen ; corruption extends all the way 'up' to the Supreme court! Democracy is an illusion when we have no voice, or power.
As I've been saying for a while, this country needs desperately to toss out its old and dying capitalist economy, and replace it with a modern form of Democratic Socialism. For those who don't know Democratic socialism is a left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-management within a market socialist economy or an alternative form of a decentralized planned socialist economy. This isn't what Bernie Sanders was calling his ideology, but I suspect it's exactly what he is for. Bernie was really a Social Democrat. That doesn't matter as the two forms get confused all the time. The people need to own all forms of energy production, natural resources and all other big corporate entities, either through workers or citizens. Free enterprise would remain for small business of all sorts. Late stage capitalism has reached the end. Big corporations have done as much damage as the country can stand. When will this be feasible to implement? Since conservatives are either wealthy capitalists or uneducated and brainwashed workers struggling to make it, its going to be a hard road to hoe, but it can be done, maybe slowly, and a step at a time. It's imperative that we work hard to get there, hopefully, before it's too late. I'm 75, and I doubt I'll live to see it. I hope most of you will. I hope I do. lol
Thank you for this clear summary of so much important info that most of us were never taught! Too bad that most Republicans—especially MAGA Republican ordinary workers (not wealthy CEOs)— will not know any of this and will continue to vote against their own best interests…
Yes, great summary of Keynes, who seems a real systems thinker in advance of systems thinking as a discipline. Breaking up corporate power is a priority that politicians overall do not seems to grasp. Capitalism cannot exist if there is no competition, and in the absence of competition (see the blatant profit seeking of Pfizer and Moderna related to the Covid vaccine) corporations drive inflation. If government spent its way out of a recession and ignored the corporate role, the excess money would just fuel a rise in corporate profits. This explains why they support deregulation (and stagnation) in a time when we must creatively move away from the energy source (fossil fuels) that made these corporations rich. They are huge but brittle in the face of climate change and we need to break them up with a sledge hammer. It will create chaotic behavior for a time, any abrupt, but essential, change will do that. I fear for the fate of the planet if the corporations still rule the economic roost when their self-caused recession/depression hits. Thanks for the post on Keynes, you said it well.
The abandonment of Keynes and the New Deal seem to coincide with the infusion of vast amounts of money into politics authorized by the 1976 Buckley v Valeo "money is speech" Supreme Court decisions and later decisions like Citizens United v FEC.
Keynes was shunned. When he inquired if the U.S. intended to treat Great Britain as ' small Balkan country' post Second World War the answer was 'Yes.' One amusing account of Keynes in Washington at that time came from J.K. Galbraith. Working in his office for the Administration, Galbraith's secretary came into inform him a 'Mr. Keenes wanted to see him'. Galbraith went on working whilst wondering who this visitor might be. Suddenly the penny dropped and he leapt to his feet to rush out and see John Maynard Keynes sitting patiently outside the door. 'It was' Galbraith wrote later 'like a parish priest was being visited by St Paul'. No system that is 'hard and fast' can get it all right every time and doubtless there are problems with Keynes ideas; but the essential message is that it is folly to believe capitalism is a self adjusting system; its tendency is always to oligarchy unless government places checks and balances upon it. The 'Fiat money cult' that wishes to return to the Gold Standard and monetary policies based upon it were in Keynes view metal fetishists – correctly so.
Small point, Eton isn't a prep school; prep schools are for juniors who may go on to greater things.
Thank you for an excellent synopsis. Your analysis clarified for me why Keynes' idea failed to address workplace feudalism through more distributed ownership of economic entities.
One of the lessons I took from a long assignment working in Southern England was how entrenched the class (caste?) system is in English society. Keynes was a part of the upper parts of that system and his models appear to have a blind spot to the need spread capitalist ownership to the workforce.
One would hope for "post-Keynesian" enlightened policies to broaden ownership and control of enterprises. There are already examples. A third of the GDP in Northern Italy’s Emilia Romagna region is produced by cooperative ventures. Then, of course, there is a noble 70+ year experiment of the Mondragon cooperatives in Basque country. One of the secrets behind the Mittelstand in Germany has been the cooperative financial system with the Genossenschaftsbanken or cooperative banks.
A concerted effort is needed at the Federal and State level. Kudos to Senator John Hickenloopr for S. 1736 in the past Congress directing the SBA to be more receptive to cooperative structures in startups. It is just one of many steps needed.
Thank you for this enlightening explanation. Relevant to this, I heard something very concerning last night. Sen. Chris Murphy in a brief interview asserted that the Trump Republican Supreme Court justices see themselves as policymakers, unbound by any ethical or other constraints and free to rule according to their personal predilections. That is, they are usurping the role of Congress and the President, to rule by judicial fiat.
Thus, any policy enacted by the real policy-making branches, including breaking up large corporations and disapproving mergers, may be summarily reversed by unelected judicial bureaucrats. We badly need Congress and the President to stand up to the Judicial Branch and stop this, otherwise we will not even begin to solve our problems. I am concerned that Biden does not seem to appreciate the seriousness and urgency of this problem.
Redistribution is not only 'moral'.. it's economically efficient! (The only way to 'beat' that redistribution efficiency ,would be to make sure workers get back the full value of their work...) 🙂
Thank you for this brilliant insight and, I think, a must do for America. Republican desire to give undeserved political power and influence to corporate executives, who never pay a price for their corporate greed, and give corporations the rights of an individual without our ability to punish the executives, has put a knee on the neck of America, and the working class is screaming that they can’t breath. Rampant inflation and economic control by Big Oil combined with grossly over inflated profits is literally killing the middle class. I agree with you completely.
Corporations are not people, and until humans see through the blatant efforts to divide us, we will be subject to corporate power wielded by the super rich, and, since money is speech: we will have no voice, and no power to self govern. As we have seen ; corruption extends all the way 'up' to the Supreme court! Democracy is an illusion when we have no voice, or power.
As I've been saying for a while, this country needs desperately to toss out its old and dying capitalist economy, and replace it with a modern form of Democratic Socialism. For those who don't know Democratic socialism is a left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-management within a market socialist economy or an alternative form of a decentralized planned socialist economy. This isn't what Bernie Sanders was calling his ideology, but I suspect it's exactly what he is for. Bernie was really a Social Democrat. That doesn't matter as the two forms get confused all the time. The people need to own all forms of energy production, natural resources and all other big corporate entities, either through workers or citizens. Free enterprise would remain for small business of all sorts. Late stage capitalism has reached the end. Big corporations have done as much damage as the country can stand. When will this be feasible to implement? Since conservatives are either wealthy capitalists or uneducated and brainwashed workers struggling to make it, its going to be a hard road to hoe, but it can be done, maybe slowly, and a step at a time. It's imperative that we work hard to get there, hopefully, before it's too late. I'm 75, and I doubt I'll live to see it. I hope most of you will. I hope I do. lol
Thank you for this clear summary of so much important info that most of us were never taught! Too bad that most Republicans—especially MAGA Republican ordinary workers (not wealthy CEOs)— will not know any of this and will continue to vote against their own best interests…
The New Deal haters will never acknowledge that liberals simply want to save capitalism from itself.
I REVERE Keynes for his WW1 prediction forever! Greetings from Germany
Yes, great summary of Keynes, who seems a real systems thinker in advance of systems thinking as a discipline. Breaking up corporate power is a priority that politicians overall do not seems to grasp. Capitalism cannot exist if there is no competition, and in the absence of competition (see the blatant profit seeking of Pfizer and Moderna related to the Covid vaccine) corporations drive inflation. If government spent its way out of a recession and ignored the corporate role, the excess money would just fuel a rise in corporate profits. This explains why they support deregulation (and stagnation) in a time when we must creatively move away from the energy source (fossil fuels) that made these corporations rich. They are huge but brittle in the face of climate change and we need to break them up with a sledge hammer. It will create chaotic behavior for a time, any abrupt, but essential, change will do that. I fear for the fate of the planet if the corporations still rule the economic roost when their self-caused recession/depression hits. Thanks for the post on Keynes, you said it well.
The abandonment of Keynes and the New Deal seem to coincide with the infusion of vast amounts of money into politics authorized by the 1976 Buckley v Valeo "money is speech" Supreme Court decisions and later decisions like Citizens United v FEC.
Keynes was shunned. When he inquired if the U.S. intended to treat Great Britain as ' small Balkan country' post Second World War the answer was 'Yes.' One amusing account of Keynes in Washington at that time came from J.K. Galbraith. Working in his office for the Administration, Galbraith's secretary came into inform him a 'Mr. Keenes wanted to see him'. Galbraith went on working whilst wondering who this visitor might be. Suddenly the penny dropped and he leapt to his feet to rush out and see John Maynard Keynes sitting patiently outside the door. 'It was' Galbraith wrote later 'like a parish priest was being visited by St Paul'. No system that is 'hard and fast' can get it all right every time and doubtless there are problems with Keynes ideas; but the essential message is that it is folly to believe capitalism is a self adjusting system; its tendency is always to oligarchy unless government places checks and balances upon it. The 'Fiat money cult' that wishes to return to the Gold Standard and monetary policies based upon it were in Keynes view metal fetishists – correctly so.
Small point, Eton isn't a prep school; prep schools are for juniors who may go on to greater things.
Thank you for an excellent synopsis. Your analysis clarified for me why Keynes' idea failed to address workplace feudalism through more distributed ownership of economic entities.
One of the lessons I took from a long assignment working in Southern England was how entrenched the class (caste?) system is in English society. Keynes was a part of the upper parts of that system and his models appear to have a blind spot to the need spread capitalist ownership to the workforce.
One would hope for "post-Keynesian" enlightened policies to broaden ownership and control of enterprises. There are already examples. A third of the GDP in Northern Italy’s Emilia Romagna region is produced by cooperative ventures. Then, of course, there is a noble 70+ year experiment of the Mondragon cooperatives in Basque country. One of the secrets behind the Mittelstand in Germany has been the cooperative financial system with the Genossenschaftsbanken or cooperative banks.
A concerted effort is needed at the Federal and State level. Kudos to Senator John Hickenloopr for S. 1736 in the past Congress directing the SBA to be more receptive to cooperative structures in startups. It is just one of many steps needed.
If corporations are people too why don't they have to pay their taxes too?
Thank you for this enlightening explanation. Relevant to this, I heard something very concerning last night. Sen. Chris Murphy in a brief interview asserted that the Trump Republican Supreme Court justices see themselves as policymakers, unbound by any ethical or other constraints and free to rule according to their personal predilections. That is, they are usurping the role of Congress and the President, to rule by judicial fiat.
Thus, any policy enacted by the real policy-making branches, including breaking up large corporations and disapproving mergers, may be summarily reversed by unelected judicial bureaucrats. We badly need Congress and the President to stand up to the Judicial Branch and stop this, otherwise we will not even begin to solve our problems. I am concerned that Biden does not seem to appreciate the seriousness and urgency of this problem.
Professor, thanks for this. I finally get it.
Professor, THIS is the message you need to bring to Congress.
A wonderful education for those of us who are relative "economic illiterates!" Thank you!
Redistribution is not only 'moral'.. it's economically efficient! (The only way to 'beat' that redistribution efficiency ,would be to make sure workers get back the full value of their work...) 🙂