>Doug, don't some post keynesians/kaleckians argue that the prop to
>effective demand from debt financed fiscal expansion should be welcomed by
>powerful enough sections of productive capital that are suffering from
>excess capacity? In this way, why wouldn't it be possible to split the
>bourgeoisie and have labor make alliance with productive capital against
>rentier capitalists who are paranoid about inflationary consequences of
>fiscal expansion? All the productive capitalists would need is some
>assurance that the state and unions will keep wage demands within bounds,
>and fiscally liberal politicians should receive enough backing in financial
>form from productive capital and in electoral form by the mass of workers
>to win election after election. Yet this scenario has not played out and
>will not play out. Why not? Perhaps Mattick was correct about the deeper
>reasons why the mixed economy would find its limits.
They do believe that, and I think they're wrong. I think their class interest in keeping slack in the labor market outweighs their interest in maximizing sales. Individual capitalists may waver in this conviction, which is why they pay central bankers to maintain the class discipline.
Doug