Origins and evolution of Military Postkeynesianism in the United States

Abstract

After the Second World War, during the so-called “Golden Age” the u.s. economy, until late 1971, demonstrated new capacities in terms of macroeconomic stability: recessions were brief and shallow while growth was strong, generating shared returns for the working class, a burgeoning middle class and for capital-owners. Neither then or since, up to the moment, has there been sufficient recognition of the key role played by military expenditures in this dynamic process accounting for at times —including induced multiplier effects— as much as twenty-five percent of the gdp. In this article we examine the origins of what has been termed “Military Keynesianism” during the Golden age, emphasizing the little-known leading role played by Leon Keyserling, who exercised behind-the-scenes power in order to convert Keynesian theory into a macroeconomic policy consistent with the u.s. institutional context that would be sufficiently large to promote long-term conditions of full employment. With a degree of audacity, at an historically opportune moment given the socioeconomic resonance of the foundational document known as “NSC-68” promulgated by the “State within the State” —the National Security State— Keyserling successfully challenged the fallacious neoclassical “law” of guns or butter.