Keynesian Economics and The Welfare State

Abstract

This article explains in detail the emergence of the new Keynesian economic paradigm as a consequence of the experience of the Great War and the Great Depression and the results obtained through government intervention during the New Deal. The aim is to show how the postwar era, with government in the driver's seat of the economy, provided the greatest period of progress in the welfare of both rich and poor nations, despite powerful interests that continually moved in the opposite direction. The results are disturbing, as the developed nations are imposing a new paradigm that is deliberately designed to further benefit the powerful few to the detriment of the impoverished many.