An Introduction to the Political Theory of John Maynard Keynes

Trickle Down Economics - an old topic, but still present in our lives. The idea consists of deregulation of the economy and of lower tax for the top in order to increase the "size of the pie" so everybody would have a bigger piece, even with a smaller share.

War Ökonomik schon immer so wie sie jetzt ist? Und wenn nein, wie dann?

Ziel dieses Seminars ist, eine Einführung in die wissenschaftstheoretischen und methodischen Grundlagen der Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften zu bieten.

In the interview, Robert Skidelsky discusses the emergence of political influence of a certain school of economic thought and how the success of an economic theory depends on the power relations in the society. He introduces the historical example of Keynesian economics and its replacement by liberal economic theory and policy in the aftermath of the Great Depression, and transfers this historical case to the dominant paradigm of austerity policies in the Europe as response to rising public debts caused by the Financial Crisis. He contrasts austerity policies with a Keynesian approach. Furthermore, he relates the targets of policy to the underlying power structures, for example when not the reduction of unemployment but the protection of financial capital is politically addressed.