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This paper surveys some of the main developments in macroeconomics since the anti-Keynesian counter-revolution 40 years ago. It covers both mainstream and heterodox economics. Amongst the topics discussed are: New Keynesian economics, Modern Monetary Theory, expansionary fiscal contraction, unconventional monetary policy, the Phillips curve, hysteresis, and heterodox theories of growth and distribution. The conclusion is that Keynesian economics is alive and well, and that there has been a degree of convergence between heterodox and mainstream economics.

Appreciation of the Keynesian synthesis was enhanced by the events of the last decade. The global financial crisis highlighted the fragility of financial markets and the capriciousness of animal spirits. The depth of the downturn pointed to the value of not just automatic stabilizers but also discretionary fiscal policy as tools of macroeconomic management. Keynesian models and not their New Classical challengers provided the practical analytical framework for policy design. Models of the anti-Keynesian effects of fiscal consolidation received little support from actual consolidation experience. The secular-stagnation debate that followed the crisis lent legitimacy to the view that policy-makers with fiscal space were wise to use it.

The supposed death of Keynesian economics has long been debated. This paper revisits the four central Keynesian propositions identified by Tobin's 1977 paper, ‘How dead is Keynes?’, to argue, in the light of the global financial crisis and the Great Recession, that Keynesian economics remains alive and relevant as useful economics for understanding the economy in a world of fundamental uncertainty, with particular reference to chapter 19 of Keynes's General Theory concerning economic instability and wage and price flexibility.