Book Description

Marx and Keynes: The Limits of the Mixed Economy is a 1969 book by Paul Mattick which presents a Marxist critique of the Keynesian approach to economic problems. During a time in which the economic orthodoxy was to say that the contradictions of the capitalist system had been overcome, Marx and Keynes goes against the orthodoxy to examine how the solutions which are presented for the market in Keynesianism are only limited and present the same contradictions. Written before the complete turn to Neoliberalism, Mattick not only critiques Keynes' policies, but also points out the same contradictions of the system exist within the state capitalism of the USSR, proclaiming himself an "Anti-Bolshevik Communist." Past being a critique of Keynesianism, Marx and Keynes is also a guide to understanding Marx's economics, from the theory of value to the falling rate of profit, Mattick applies Marx to the current state of economics in the '60s. Paul Mattick, Sr. (March 13, 1904 - February 7, 1981) was a Marxist political writer and social revolutionary, whose thought can be placed within the council communist and left communist traditions.