Macroeconomic Policy for the Real World: A Post-Keynesian Perspective

The current mainstream neoclassical economic analysis of growth in a "Western" economy holds that in anything but the relatively short run, defined as the length of a business cycle, the economy reaches an equilibrium growth rate determined entirely by supply side factors and unaffected by measures taken to increase aggregate demand during a slump. In addition, the process of transformation to this long-run equilibrium position is never explained. As a result of these views, the finance sector, both domestically and internationally, has obtained undue influence and behaved in a manner that caused the crisis which started in 2007. This paper considers these propositions, focussing on neoclassical growth theory. After establishing these claims, the policy implications are discussed.