[lbo-talk] Fwd: Has the Left given up on Economics ? « The Disorder Of Things

Jim Farmelant farmelantj at juno.com
Tue Oct 4 12:21:09 PDT 2011


On Tue, 4 Oct 2011 14:54:43 -0400 c b <cb31450 at gmail.com> writes:
>
>
> To the extent Keynesians do not do economic analysis with the
> purpose
> of ending capitalism , but preserving it, they are not Leftists in
> the
> essential sense.
>
> --
>

Well, Keynes himself did not mince words in explaining that his concern was with preserving capitalism not overturing it, but that does raise questions about Left Keynesians for instance. Over at MRZine there is posted an interview with Paul Sweezy on that very subject, see: http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/sweezy110610.html Sweezy makes the point that Keynes himself was concerned with trying to preserve capitalism, that was not necessarily the case with a Left Keynesian like Joan Robinson. In that interview, Sweezy expressed admiration for Robinson, who he considered to be more radical than many people who describe themselves as Marxists. No doubt that is at least part of the reason, if not the main reason, why never won the Nobel Prize in economics, despite expectations that she would win the Prize.

And for Charles I would have a question. Would the CPUSA, especially back in the 1930s and 1940s, when in the name of Popular Front politics, it was very much supporting FDR and his New Deal, count as "Leftists in the essential sense"? I suppose they would have answered in the affirmative, but FDR's New Deal was intended to facilitate the preservation of capitalism at a time when that system was under challenge because of the Great Depression. And in fact the New Deal seems to have been a great success in that regards. Despite fear on the right of "creeping socialism", that does not seem to be how things have turned out. The successes of the New Deal and later of the Great Society would seem, by helping to maintain capitalism's economic and political viability, made possible the later resurgence of neoliberalism and the new right, which have attempted to roll back the social gains made under FDR and Lyndon Johnson for the sake of the profits and greater glory of capital.

Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant www.foxymath.com Learn or Review Basic Math ____________________________________________________________ Online Masters Degrees AA, BA, BS, MA, MS, PhD Programs http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4e8b5cdb2e34942ab1bst03vuc



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