PERI and The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas-Austin hosted an event at the LBJ Washington Center presenting four new books that address macroeconomic theory and policy making. The center-piece book -- James Crotty’s Keynes Against Capitalism: His Economic Case for Liberal Socialism -- was presented by PERI's Robert Pollin, and asks, what can we learn of relevance today from the seminal work of John Maynard Keynes? This was followed by a plenary address by James Galbraith on Pragmatism and Ideology in the Legacy of John Maynard Keynes and then discussions on When Things Don’t Fall Apart, by Ilene Grabel; All Fall Down, by Jane D’Arista; and The Political Economy of Central Banking, by PERI's Gerald Epstein.
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The American Corporation in Crisis
In “The American Corporation in Crisis—Let’s Rethink It,” PERI researcher Lenore Palladino argues that, for decades, the concept of shareholder primacy in corporate organization has abandoned the idea that corporations’ employees should benefit when the corporations are succeeding. Over recent decades, the commitment to shareholder primacy has contributed to the persistent rise of inequality between workers versus their employers—i.e., top management and share owners. Palladino proposes approaches to create more egalitarian corporate structures. Thirteen leading analysts comment on Palladino’s proposals in a special Boston Review Forum, and Palladino responds to the commentators.
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An Egalitarian Global Carbon Tax
In “Balancing the Climate Injustice: A Proposal for a Differential Global Carbon Tax,” PERI researcher Shouvik Chakraborty and Rohit Azad argue for a differential carbon tax across the globe to support a green energy transition. All countries would pay tax rates according to their respective shares in global emissions. With the global carbon tax at $46 per ton, Chakraborty and Azad estimate that the total ‘carbon compensation’ made by the ‘payer’ nations—those that, per capita, pollute more than average—comes to around $570 billion. These funds should then be channeled into financing the global energy transition in low-income countries.
Keynes Against Capitalism
In Keynes Against Capitalism, PERI researcher James Crotty demonstrates that John Maynard Keynes—the most influential economist of the 20th Century—advanced a coherent program on behalf of 'Liberal Socialism.' Crotty's view sharply diverges from mainstream perspectives which have long held that Keynes's overarching project was mild reform of capitalism. Professor James Galbraith writes "This book is a marvel of economic narrative, with Crotty's clarity and Keynes's elegance in stunning counterpoint, from Versailles through the Depression to the war and Bretton Woods, all bringing forth the great, neglected fact that Keynes's Liberal Socialism was far more radical than modern memory would have us think."
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