ABSTRACT
The phrase “economic planning” refers to the use of fiscal and/or monetary policies to combat recessions or inflation in private enterprise, market economies. Interest in any kind of government planning has shrunk considerably over the past half century as faith in the wisdom of the titans of industry and the magic of the market remains high even as anti-establishment sentiment grows. However, it is very possible that as neoliberal capitalism generates increasingly unacceptable outcomes, more interventionist policies and different forms of capitalist planning will once again come back in vogue. Historians of economic thought identify three “periods” when economists have engaged in theoretical debates about socialist planning. The first began in 1908 and continued during the years between the two world wars. The second period began after world war II and extended up to the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. The most recent period began in 1990 and continues to the present day.
