They got that by reading watered down versions of the General Theory argument in which the terms of the theory were translated into national accounts according to the concerns of the translator, which were domestic economic management.

That is, if Samuelsonian economics is considered to somehow be an "updated, upgraded" Keynesian economics rather than considered to be a bastardized, watered down Keynesian economics, then there is no need to go back and read the original to "know" that the limitations of Samuelsonian economics are automatically also the limitations of the General Theory.

But in reality, most of the shackles in Samuelsonian economics were put in place in order to try to marry a Keynesian macroeconomics with an incompatible neoclassical microeconomics ... Samuelson seems to be, after all, the economist that Joan Robinson was referring to in her of-repeated aphorism, "converted against their will, is unconverted still".


I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.