Post-Keynesian economics for the day after tomorrow

From the dawn of capitalism, the issue of inequality is one of the most urgent challenges societies of capitalist countries must face. In the current COVID-19 pandemic the problem of inequality is both the consequence of the pandemic which politicians will have to manage, and the factor which contributed to such a profound collapse of the economy during the pandemic. The scale of material, income and health inequalities will determine how severe the imminent crisis will be in the coming years.

So, why are we talking about Post-Keynesian economics for the day after tomorrow? The coronavirus disease pandemic has probably caused the most profound global economic crisis since the Great Depression. But for several years now, heterodox economists, including Post-Keynesians, has been warning us about the prospect of another crisis. This implies that the 2007-08 crisis did not lead to a breakthrough in the way of thinking in economics and economic policies. The current crisis is an opportunity to rethink our economics systems anew. Precisely from this viewpoint, it is important to understand the potential of Post-Keynesian ideas for the coming times.

The topic of the lecture will be the attempt to answer the question: how can Post-Keynesian economics remedy inequality and help build more equal society in the context of the coronavirus disease pandemic. The main thesis of the talk claims that Post-Keynesian ideas are able to effectively reduce the problem of inequality in capitalist countries, since Post-Keynesian economics emphasises the structural causes of inequality and offers systemic solutions for the economic policy. Szymborska will also present challenges which, according to her, await the contemporary Post-Keynesian movement, and propose some ways in which it can face these challenges.