A Methodological Reading of "Economic Consequences of the Peace"

(from the introduction to the volume) Anna Carabelli and Mario Cedrini’s probing chapter strikes new ground in its analysis of Keynes’s proposals in terms of sociological and anthropological notions of gift giving, the significance of which only becomes fully apparent within the more general methodological analysis by the authors of what they identify as Keynes’s complexity approach to the economic challenges of uncertainty. This approach proceeds on the basis of a financialized understanding of advanced economies, where the key dynamic tensions arise out of the interaction between creditors and debtors rather than consumers and producers. As Carabelli and Cedrini argue, this perspective is highly relevant to the understanding of the economic challenges that Europe faces today.