First paragraph: Geoff, what was your motivation to become an economist? How did you come into contact with Keynesian economics? And what were the major steps in your career as a professional economist, moving back and forth between Australia and Cambridge, UK?

In this paper I analyse how I became an economist and at the same time a democratic socialist and a Christian. I also explain how I became politically involved after my graduate studies at Cambridge in the late 1950s and started lecturing at Adelaide. When back in Cambridge in the 1960s,...

I start with a moral axiom: the necessary (but not sufficient) condition for a just and equitable society is that its citizens and its government are committed to establishing and maintaining full employment of its citizens. That is to say, anyone who is willing to work under existing conditions...

Unless there is a radical reform of the global financial system, it will continue to be conducive to financial crises and the necessary reforms are looking increasingly unlikely. Government rhetoric and actions can often influence in desirable ways both the speculative actions that now determine...

The Cambridge, England, critique of the marginal productivity theory of distribution is hard to disentangle from the related theories and developments that occurred alongside it. These include value theory, price theory, capital theory, growth theory and methodology. Indeed, in the event, I...

I count it a great privilege to contribute an essay to the volume for John Henry. I have known him since he was a doctoral student at McGill in the 1970s. John was supervised by my old and dear friend, the late Athanasios (Tom) Asimakopulos. (Tom and I were Ph.D students at King's, Cambridge in...

David Ricardo's key place in the history of economic thought is well established. However, both the understanding of his Principles of Political Economy and Taxation and its role in the development of economic analysis is much more controversial. Cambridge economists have contributed...

In major advanced economies, including Australia, independent central banks have become established institutions. Yet there are reasons why the sustained presence of such an institution in a democratic society should be challenged. This paper considers the arguments usually advanced for central...

I am delighted and honoured to contribute an essay to the Special Issue of the Global and Local Economic Review in honour of Anwar Shaikh's contributions, and especially to honour 40 years on from the publication of his wonderful HUMBUG article, “Laws of production and laws of algebra: the...

There is a myth underlying neoclassical economic analysis of a 'Western' economy, which is that in anything but the relatively short run, defined as the length of a business cycle, the economy reaches an equilibrium position determined entirely by supply side factors and unaffected by measures...