| In this dissertation I contribute to the radical-post-Keynesian financial literature in three different but related essays. Despite a willingness to include aspects of economic inequality, important class aspects remain underdeveloped in this literature. As a consequence, the role of finance, in terms of constituting important class outcomes, is not well known or understood. Therefore, financial policy does not recognize its full set of class consequences or opportunities for class changes. In this dissertation I develop financial policies' untapped potential as a mechanism to improve economic and class conditions.;In Essay 1, I explore the role of modernism as it relates to the history of attempts to merge Marx and Keynes. It finds the protocols of modernism, in part, responsible for pessimistic views on economic change. As the possibility for change is important for policy, policy too is limited by modernism. Therefore, in this essay I propose an alternative, postmodern integration of Marx and Keynes which is able to theorize in terms of concepts such as commodity fetishism, labor values, uncertainty, and "animal spirits." As these concepts helped Marx and Keynes to theorize the possibilities of economic change, they too can empower future theories to produce new agendas for change.;In Essay 2, I investigate issues of financial reform and issues of class in regards to surplus labor. I also develop a model of aggregate demand in class terms. The model is used to understand the merges and acquisition wave and specifies the class outcomes which may occur from policies to increase investment.;In Essay 3, I show how current policies concerning pensions, employee stock ownership plans, and the Federal Reserve may actually advance unfavorable class changes. Fortunately, however, I am able to offer a new class-sensitive agenda that touches on many opportunities for intervention, including pension management, ESOPs, and the Federal Reserve, but also proposes policies regarding expenditures of the federal government and how the private sector can also encourage favorable class changes. |
