Author Archives: pilkingtonphil

About pilkingtonphil

Philip Pilkington is a macroeconomist and investment professional. Writing about all things macro and investment. Views my own.You can follow him on Twitter at @philippilk.

Kahn’s Multiplier Argument: A Kaleckian Distributional or Keynesian Aggregate Income Approach?

I have been rereading Kahn’s classic 1931 paper The Relation of Home Investment to Unemployment for my coming work on a general theory of prices. The paper lays out the argument for the existence of a Keynesian multiplier for the … Continue reading

Posted in Economic Theory | 2 Comments

Alternate Reality Economics: Left Business Observer Spiked With the Ergodic Poison

I like the Left Business Observer. I think that its well written, quite amusing and sometimes provides interesting arguments and data-points that I would otherwise have missed. It is also generally up to scratch on economics, although some of the … Continue reading

Posted in Economic History, Economic Policy | Leave a comment

Quantity Rationing as Business Strategy: Furthering the Case for a General Theory of Pricing

My last post on my attempts to create a general theory of prices met with some positive responses. I’m not hugely surprised. Any thinking person who has ever entered an undergraduate micro course has questioned the validity of what’s being … Continue reading

Posted in Economic Theory | 14 Comments

The Post-Keynesian View of Monetary Policy

Among Post-Keynesians there is a general consensus about interest rate policies: they are not, unless used in extreme form to generate recessions, very effective at regulating the volume of output or even inflation. Of all the Post-Keynesian arguments that I … Continue reading

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Teleology and Market Equilibrium: Manifesto for a General Theory of Prices

Neoclassicals are a slippery bunch indeed. The moment you think that you’ve pointed out a flaw in their theoretical armor they turn around and say that the theory can accommodate the criticism. Soon after, you see them once again making … Continue reading

Posted in Economic Theory, Toward a General Theory of Pricing | 8 Comments

The Mystery of Rising Excess Oil Capacity and Rising Prices

The following is an article that I wrote for FTAlphaville that was never run. Quite a number of people think that financial market dynamics are substantially distorting the price of oil. FT Alphaville’s own Izabella Kaminska has laid out in … Continue reading

Posted in Economic Policy, Market Analysis | Leave a comment

Marxism, Alienation, the Unhappy Consciousness and Gnostic Trickery

Here I just want to lay out, to supplement my last post, a quick note on what seems to me an epistemological error in Marxist philosophy — one that results from an inability to follow dialectical logic to its conclusion … Continue reading

Posted in Philosophy, Psychology | 7 Comments

Marx, Hegel, the Labour Theory of Value and Human Desire

Hour-long, by hour, may we two stand When we’re dead, between these lands The sun set behind his eyes And Joe said, “Is this desire?” — PJ Harvey, ‘Is This Desire?‘ I’ll be honest: I hate discussing Marx, dialectical materialism … Continue reading

Posted in Economic Theory, Philosophy, Psychology | 20 Comments

Gunnar Myrdal’s Monetary Equilibrium Theory: A Summarized Version

Jan has brought my attention to the following paper which lays out a good outline of Gunnar Myrdal’s Monetary Equilibrium. Since many are unfamiliar with Myrdal’s theories in the English speaking world I will lay out what I think to … Continue reading

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Gunnar Myrdal’s Prescient Criticisms of Keynes’ General Theory

In my post on the Austrian Business Cycle Theory Jan, a regular commenter on Lord Keynes’ blog, once again brought up the Stockholm School of economics. He has been doing this on Lord Keynes’ blog for as long as I … Continue reading

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