The Samuelsonian synthesis subordinates free markets to prior government full-employment policy

Evidence

The brand of economics I use in my daily work—the brand that I still consider by far the most reasonable approach out there—was largely established by Paul Samuelson back in 1948, when he published the first edition of his classic textbook. It’s an approach that combines the grand tradition of microeconomics, with its emphasis on how the invisible hand leads to generally desirable outcomes, with Keynesian macroeconomics, which emphasizes the way the economy can develop magneto trouble, requiring policy intervention. In the Samuelsonian synthesis, one must count on the government to ensure more or less full employment; only once that can be taken as given do the usual virtues of free markets come to the fore. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 60

Categorization

• DEFINE: A useful definition of the Samuelsonian synthesis, one leg of the tension the author says defines postwar economics.
• XREF: Connects to Keynes-Hayek and the neoclassical synthesis literature; the reader’s knowledge of Samuelson’s textbook as orthodoxy-setter. — connects to: Neoliberalism subordinates the state to capital rather than freeing markets — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1720; Ordoliberalism inverted classical liberalism by making economic effectiveness depend on political and legal systems — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 362; Neoliberals pursued an engineered order rather than expecting free markets to emerge naturally — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1907 (+2 more)
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 60

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism subordinates the state to capital rather than freeing markets #complicates (0.85) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1720
• The Samuelsonian synthesis is intellectually unstable because micro and macro rest on inconsistent assumptions #expands (0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 61
• Ordoliberalism inverted classical liberalism by making economic effectiveness depend on political and legal systems #expands (0.75) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 362
• Neoliberals pursued an engineered order rather than expecting free markets to emerge naturally #complicates (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1907
• Ordoliberalism departed from classical liberalism by grounding markets in a constitutional framework #expands (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1087