Money and Government: The Past and Future of Economics

Description

A critical examination of economics' past and future, and how it needs to change, by one of the most eminent political economists of our time The dominant view in economics is that money and government should play only minor roles in economic life. Economic outcomes, it is claimed, are best left to the "invisible hand" of the market. Yet these claims remain staunchly unsettled. The view taken in this important new book is that the omnipresence of uncertainty makes money and government essential features of any market economy. Since Adam Smith, classical economics has espoused non-intervention in markets. The Great Depression brought Keynesian economics to the fore; but stagflation in the 1970s brought a return to small-state orthodoxy. The 2008 global financial crash should have brought a reevaluation of that stance; instead the response has been punishing austerity and anemic recovery. This book aims to reintroduce Keynes’s central insights to a new generation of economists, and embolden them to return money and government to the starring roles in the economic drama that they deserve. Contents List of Figures Preface Introduction Part One. History of Economic Thought Introductory text 1. The Mysteries of Money: A Short History 2. The Fight for the Gold Standard 3. The Quantity Theory of Money: From History to Science 4. Theories of the Fertile and Barren State Part Two. The Rise, Triumph and Fall of Keynes Introductory text 5. Keynes’s Intervention 6. The Keynesian Ascendancy 7. The Theory and Practice of Monetarism Part Three. Macroeconomics in the Crash and After, 2007- Introductory text 8. The Disablement of Fiscal Policy 9. The New Monetarism 10. Distribution as a Macroeconomic Problem 11. What Was Wrong with the Banks? 12. Global Imbalances Part Four. A New Macroeconomics 13. Reinventing Political Economy Notes Bibliography Index