'Dr. Kalecki' on Mr Keynes

This chapter presents Kalecki’s interpretation of the General Theory, contained in his review of the book from 1936. The most striking feature of this interpretation is that, despite criticizing a great deal of Keynes’s analysis, particularly regarding the determinants of investment, Kalecki was highly impressed by Keynes’s theory showing the effect of changes in investment on global employment, income and production levels. Kalecki’s review and restatement of the key ideas of the General Theory is superior to the original due to a clearer and more concise account of the causes of changes in investment and their influence on the short-run equilibrium position, taking into consideration the distribution of income between capitalists and workers. But the review also criticized Keynes’s methodology and does not even mention key elements of his analysis (notably his monetary and financial analysis)