ABSTRACT
Hyman Minsky used to joke that "there are as many varieties of capitalism as Heinz has pickles". In stark contrast, today's mainstream economics would have us believe that the single type of capitalism that can exist, or at least the only viable capitalism, is the one where state intervention is minimal. Fast economic growth was achieved rather cheaply in terms of capital expenditure. High degrees of capacity utilisation, a consequence of fast growing demand, probably account for this remarkable performance. While the investment projects sponsored by the Public Works Administration (PWA) tended to be more capital-intensive, the Works Progress Administration tended to support more labour-intensive initiatives. Initiatives such as the PWA were certainly important to support aggregate demand, but even some of Keynes's most ferocious critics in the country would now admit that there is a need for public initiative when dealing with infrastructure investments.
