Is Keynesianism dead? A new era.

Keynes reasoned that government needed to act as spender and risk-taker of first resort. Doing so could revive the animal spirits of the private sector and, with them, growth.

And when put into practice, this Keynesian multiplier largely worked, helping reflate the world out of the Depression.

Having dominated policymaking up to the 1970s, Keynesianism was then jettisoned for monetarist policies as stagflation displaced stagnation.

A remarkable comeback in response to a new set of conjoined crises, the global financial crisis, Covid and the Russia-Ukraine war. Indeed, the new interventions have dwarfed any previous peacetime stimulus.

But if people anticipate that borrowing today means higher taxes tomorrow, stimulus might prompt saving rather than spending — something first identified by David Ricardo in 1820.

Historically, economists have been sceptical about the ability of households and companies to anticipate future tax rises when making spending choices. But ...

After missing inflation targets for more than five years, central banks in the UK, US and euro area have stirred from their slumber, raising short-term rates and pivoting to quantitative tightening.

Keynesianism, if not dead, is potentially defunct, except when squarely focused on public investment.

Andy Haldane Financial Times 5 September 2026

https://www.ft.com/content/e1afdbf1-eb21-45c0-ad88-1ec0913b1f7c?syn-25a6b1a6=1

The writer is an FT contributing editor and former chief economist at the Bank of England.

John Maynard Keynes Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Maynard_Keynes

John Maynard Keynes Internetional

https://www.internetional.se/monekeynes.html

The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money is a book by English economist John Maynard Keynes published in February 1936.  

Hur det kom sig att England övergav guldmyntfoten 1931.

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2025/11/den-1-oktober-1931-far-professor-john.html

The lessons of 1937

”Det som satte stopp för trettiotalsdepressionen i USA var ett massivt underskottfinansierat program för offentliga arbeten som kallas andra världskriget”.

https://www.internetional.se/1937.htm

Keynes for Our Times by Robert Skidelsky

Martin Wolf FT 17 June 2026

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2026/06/martin-wolf-selects-his-best-mid-year.html

Money creation in the modern economy at Bank of England pdf, QB 2014 Q1

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/quarterly-bulletin/2014/q1/money-creation-in-the-modern-economy

Sverige och Tyskland har mer än gärna lyft fram sin återhållsamma finanspolitik – med det svenska överskottsmålet och tyskarnas ”Schwarze Null” – som en dygd som andra länder bör ta efter. 

Att stater som tar in mer i skatt än de gör av med i praktiken bara stryper efterfrågan har man däremot inte velat veta av.

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2026/06/keynes-insikter-om-att-balanserad.html

Animal Spirits, Banks create money when they lend

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2025/05/mmtre.html

Sadly, the eurozone has not learned the debt lessons of Versailles, or heeded the warnings of John Maynard Keynes.

The tragedy of the interwar years in Germany was that the Social Democrats - then the world’s foremost socialist party - became fatally tainted by acquiescing in /accepting/ Bruning’s deflation torture from 1930 to 1932. 

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2019/06/sadly-eurozone-has-not-learned-debt.html