Abstract

A Keynesian-Rooseveltian policy synthesis for the United States ruled from the end of World War II to the inauguration of Reagan. It emerged out of the union of the structural reforms of the 1930s and the active use of fiscal policy in the post-World War II period. This policy regime was a response to the shortcomings of the small government, laissez-faire capitalism that were apparent in the performance of the economy in the 1920s and early 1930s, and to Keynes’ demonstration in The General Theory that any economy with the production and financial characteristics of American capitalism was inherently flawed.