John E. King is professor emeritus at La Trobe University, Australia. His most recent work is The Alternative Austrian Economics: A Brief History (2019).
The Marxist economist Paul Sweezy dedicated his life to understanding how capitalism works, and how it had changed since Karl Marx’s time. The big economic questions that Sweezy addressed are still fundamental for socialists today.
Joan Robinson established herself as one of the world’s leading economists in a deeply sexist field. Drawing on the work of Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes alike, she left us with a vital legacy for the critical study of capitalism.
The Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter believed that the triumph of socialism was inevitable, but he rejected the Marxist view of how capitalism works. His ideas are a stimulating challenge for those seeking an alternative to capitalism today.
The Austrian Marxist Rudolf Hilferding (1877–1941) produced an important and influential analysis of capitalism, and he played an active role in Austrian and German politics before falling victim to Nazism. He still has a lot to teach us about the way modern capitalism works.