What is the American Model Really About?: Soft Budgets and the Keynesian Devolution

Posted: 22 Jun 2008

See all articles by James K. Galbraith

James K. Galbraith

University of Texas at Austin - Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs; Levy Economics Institute of Bard College

Date Written: February 2007

Abstract

High employment in America stems not from flexible wages, but from institutions that foster high effective demand, especially in health care, higher education, housing, and the spending of retirees. These institutions combine public and private revenue sources so as to establish soft budget constraints; the net effect is to displace deficit spending from the public to the private sector a Keynesian Devolution that in the late 1990s drove demand to full employment levels even though public deficits disappeared.

Suggested Citation

Galbraith, James K., What is the American Model Really About?: Soft Budgets and the Keynesian Devolution (February 2007). Industrial and Corporate Change, Vol. 16, Issue 1, pp. 1-18, 2007, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1149205 or http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/icc/dtl031

James K. Galbraith (Contact Author)

University of Texas at Austin - Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs ( email )

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Levy Economics Institute of Bard College

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