ABSTRACT
The putative post-Keynesian synthesis of Sraffa and Keynes is a problematic matter at best, and a hopeless muddle otherwise. Neoclassical theory has another dimension never noted, or appreciated, by the Cambridge School and which remains quite unscathed by the Sraffian critique; neoclassical theory is also an optimization theory, a praxiology as Lange called it, to which post-Keynesians can add nothing, and from which they can take away even less. The rub in the approach is a problem that was present in neoclassical theory from its inception, the effort to achieve what philosophers call complete closure – albeit within a logical model – in the face of a recalcitrant capitalist reality, which evolves always, apparendy, just a litde faster than theory. The platform of wage-led growth, within the auspices of a distribution-conscious, but securely, capitalist regime, is hardly distinguishable from any of the host of variants of traditional liberal Keynesianism.
