ABSTRACT
In The General Theory Keynes was more expansive, although appending a qualification: "if the consumption psychology of the community is such that they will choose to consume, e.g., nine-tenths of an increment of income, then the multiplier k is 10; and the total employment caused by increased public works will be 10 times the primary employment provided by the public works themselves, assuming no reduction of investment in other directions". As conceded in the qualifying phrase of Keynes's example—"assuming no reduction in other directions"— caveats had to be considered. He was recognizing the crowding-out argument, about which he had debated so unsatisfactorily with Richard Hopkins. Keynes had no better arguments in The General Theory. From The General Theory's depressed level, however, Keynes prepared to swing his philosophical cycle upward. In this he was characteristically making another of his frequent reversals of earlier positions. In 1928 he had given the mathematically and otherwise optimistic talk, "Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren".
