We are all Keynesians again… and always

Geoff Mann’s provocative paper presents an exacting critique of Keynes’ economic philosophy, coupled with a meditation on the implications of the present ‘triple crisis’, especially for the Left. He has compelling things to say on both topics but is at his most provocative where he links them together. This takes the form of an intriguing (if somewhat quirky) proposition that all liberal responses to the recurrent crises and regulatory dilemmas of capitalism, at least since the early 19th century, have been in some fashion (but also essentially) ‘Keynesian’. The basis for this bold claim – the identification of what I will call a ‘meta-Keynesian’ mind-set – mostly comes from a deep reading of Keynes’ philosophy and not from historical analysis per se. Mann is persuasive on the provenance of Keynes’ philosophy, but I question his claims about the reach and (continuing) grip of Keynesian reason and about the inevitability of the economist’s ‘eternal return’. Keynes may have been a Hegelian, but I am not convinced that he is ‘our Hegel’; I am not even sure he is ‘our’ Keynes