Explaining persistent cycles in a short-run context: firms’ propensity to invest and omnipotent shareholders

In this article, we develop a standard short-run Kaleckian macromodel. First, we study the stability of equilibrium and make some comparative static exercises. Then, we take into account different specifications for an endogenous propensity to invest and systematically analyze the short-run dynamics of the model. We show that when firms’ managers adopt abnormal behaviours due to pressures from shareholders regarding the propensity to invest the system exhibits persistent cycles and chaotic trajectories. The analysis emphasizes that, even in the short-run, shareholders may generate instability which represents a serious threat that should not be underestimated for a capitalist economy.Kaleckian model, propensity to invest, fluctuations

Post-Keynesian modelling: where are we, and where are we going to?

This paper presents the current “state of the art” of Post-Keynesian modelling, as well as the most important issues raised by it. We first present a new formal statement of the Keynes' model, highlighting the importance of the “static model of a dynamic process”, and insisting on the influence of “true uncertainty” and of the “views concerning the future.” The paper then analyses the three most important classes of Post-Keynesian contemporary models: the Kaleckian models of growth; the Minskian models showing the destabilizing impacts of financial variables on the economy; and the path-dependant models insisting on the nature of time in economics, and on the absence of any “natural” anchor. We argue that, whereas the current Post-Keynesian models have a lot in common with Keynes’ model, none of them encompasses all its rich and realistic properties, and a synthetic dynamic Post-Keynesian model is desirable, and has still to be framed. The main barriers to this synthesis are underlined.Post-Keynesian modelling; Keynes’ “static model of a dynamic process”; Kaleckian models; Minskian models; Models of path dependency

De Popkin à Rousseau : retour sur le scepticisme des Lumières

Le scepticisme des Lumières est le parent pauvre des études que Popkin a consacrées au scepticisme moderne. En général, Popkin ne confère au scepticisme des Lumières qu’une valeur propédeutique ou méthodologique. Si Popkin est revenu à plusieurs reprises sur ce portrait qu’il a brossé du scepticisme des Lumières pour le nuancer, évoquant notamment les travaux de Baker, d’Olaso ou de Tonelli, c’est pour accepter que le scepticisme ait été plus prégnant au XVIIIe siècle qu’il ne le pensait, mais sans pour autant modifier son sentiment quant à l’usage qui en fut fait. Or, à partir de l’évocation de formes de scepticisme délaissées par Popkin (le scepticisme clandestin, l’égoïsme), cet article propose une réévaluation de l’ensemble du scepticisme des Lumières et en teste la validité en prenant Rousseau pour exemple. L’avantage du recours à Rousseau, c’est que ce dernier a connu à la fois le scepticisme clandestin et l’égoïsme, et qu’il est donc à même de montrer l’influence de ce scepticisme souterrain sur les Lumières dans leur ensemble.The scepticism of the Enlightenment was neglected in the studies that Popkin devoted to early modern scepticism. Generally, Popkin only attributes a preparatory, or methodological role to the scepticism of the Enlightenment. Indeed, Popkin himself has come back several times to the picture he had drawn of the Enlightenment, notably in light of the works by Baker, Olaso or Tonelli. However, it was only to accept that scepticism was more developed than he had first thought, and never to change his mind about the influence that it had on this time-period. Through the analysis of forms of scepticism that were totally neglected by Popkin (i.e., clandestine scepticism and egoism), this article proposes a complete re-evaluation of scepticism in the Enlightenment. Rousseau is particularly interesting here because he has known both the clandestine scepticism, and the egoism movement. This article takes him as a case study in order to test the validity of its thesis concerning the influence of this underground scepticism on the Enlightenment as a whole

Du matérialisme à l’immatérialisme : le problème âme-corps dans la philosophie clandestine

Parmi l’ensemble des manuscrits philosophiques clandestins à notre disposition, la grande majorité des textes adopte une position matérialiste quant au rapport entre l’âme et le corps. Cette position est souvent défendue à partir d’une critique du dualisme cartésien dont on mentionne les difficultés qui ressortissent à l’union improbable de deux substances ontologiquement différentes. Mais cette lecture n’épuise pas l’ensemble des réactions nées des difficultés du dualisme cartésien. À cet égard, l’étude des Réflexions morales et métaphysiques sur les connaissances de l’homme permet de complexifier l’analyse. De fait, ce manuscrit cherche à tracer une voie médiane entre matérialisme et idéalisme d’où découle une métaphysique proprement originale, cherchant à réconcilier l’idéalisme de Malebranche et le panthéisme de Spinoza, et témoignant par là de la richesse et de la nouveauté de certaines réflexions clandestines.Among the set of clandestine philosophical manuscripts at our disposal, the vast majority of texts adopt a materialistic position regarding the relation of body and soul. This position is often defended with a critique of Cartesian dualism that highlights the difficulties that emerge from the improbable union of two ontologically different substances. But this reading does not exhaust all the reactions provoked by the difficulties of Cartesian dualism. In this regard, the study of Réflexions morales et métaphysiques sur les connaissances de l’homme [Moral and metaphysical meditations on the subject of human knowledge] makes it possible to complexify analysis. This manuscript, in fact, seeks to plot a middle road between materialism and idealism that will lead to a metaphysics unique in itself, one that strives to reconcile Malebranche’s idealism and Spinoza’s pantheism, thereby testifying to the richness and originality of certain clandestine meditations