[URPE] Review of Keynesian Economics (ROKE)

[Thomas Palley]

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

 

I am writing to inform you about the Review of Keynesian Economics (ROKE), a
new journal I have co-founded with Louis-Philippe Rochon (Laurentian
University) and Matias Vernengo (Central Bank of Argentina).

 

ROKE will be published by Edward Elgar. Details about the journal are
available here <http://www.e-elgar.com/journals/journal_main.lasso?ref=ROKE>
.

 

We invite you to subscribe to the journal and submit manuscripts. Please
also ask your library to subscribe.

 

An abridged version of the founding statement of purpose is attached below.
The full statement is available here
<http://www.e-elgar.com/journals/Journal_About.lasso?ref=ROKE#aims> .

 

We look forward to your participation and engagement.

 

Best,

 

Tom Palley

Review of Keynesian Economics

Abridged Statement of the Founding Editors

"Economics and the economic crisis: The case for change"

 

It is widely recognized that economic crises can sometimes trigger enormous
change, both with regard to economic theory and the politics of governance.
Today, the global economy is struggling with the fall-out from the financial
crash of 2008 and the Great Recession of 2007-09. The economic crisis that
these events have generated, combined with the failure of the mainstream
economics profession, has again put the question of change on the table. 

 

With regard to the economics profession, it stands significantly discredited
owing to its failure to foresee the recession and the financial crash; its
repeated over-optimistic forecasts of rapid recovery; and lack of
plausibility surrounding its attempts to explain events. Reasonable people
do not expect economists to predict the daily movements of the stock market,
but they do expect them to anticipate and explain major imminent economic
developments. On that score the profession failed catastrophically,
revealing fundamental theoretical inadequacies.

 

This intellectual failure has prompted us to launch the Review of Keynesian
Economics. At a time of journal proliferation some may wonder about the need
for another journal. We would respond there is a proliferation of journals
but that proliferation is essentially within one intellectual paradigm. As
such, it obscures the fact that the range of theoretical inquiry is actually
very narrow. A journal devoted to Keynesian economics is therefore needed
both to correct this narrowness and because events have once again confirmed
the profound relevance of Keynesian theory.

 

Reflection upon the intellectual history of macroeconomics over the past
seventy-five years can help to understand the current predicament and need
for this new journal. That history traces an arc, which first saw the
eclipse of classical macroeconomics by Keynesian macroeconomics, and then
saw the eclipse of Keynesian macroeconomics by a revived and re-tooled
classical macroeconomics. 

 

The crisis associated with the Great Depression of the 1930s inspired John
Maynard Keynes to write The General Theory of Employment, Interest and
Money. Keynes' theory had enormous influence both inside and outside the
academy, and his ideas on the importance of effective demand triggered a
remaking of macroeconomics that saw Keynesian theory displace classical
macroeconomic theory. After World War II, the Keynesian theoretical
revolution inspired new policy thinking that contributed to a twenty-five
year period of unprecedented prosperity, now widely referred to as "The
Golden Age" of capitalism or "The Age of Keynes". However, adherents of
classical macroeconomic theory never accepted the legitimacy of Keynesian
economics and they forged a counter-revolution that restored classical
macroeconomics. That counter-revolution has had grave consequences for
economic policy and society, and in the academy it narrowed the space for
economic thought by imposing an intellectual monopoly. The financial crisis
of 2008 and the accompanying Great Recession provide an opportunity to
re-open economic theory and economic policy.

 

 

>From Financial Crisis to Stagnation, Cambridge University Press, 2012.

US discount (20%) available at:

www.cambridge.org/us/knowledge/discountpromotion/?site_locale=en_US
<http://www.cambridge.org/us/knowledge/discountpromotion/?site_locale=en_US&
code=palley2012> &code=palley2012

 

Thomas Palley

Senior Economic Adviser, AFL-CIO and 

Associate, Economic Growth Program, New America Foundation

Tel: (202)-667-5518

e-mail: mail at thomaspalley.com

www.thomaspalley.com

 

 

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