This book looks at Kalecki's 'principle of increasing risk' and how it gives the way in which the reproduction and expansion of wealth can bring a coherent unity to economic analysis.

Michael Kalecki is thought by many to be the true standard bearer of theories of mixed economy, and it can be argued that John Maynard Keynes stole his crown undeservedly. Kaleckian ideas are becoming more and more influential.

Kalecki's opus has been acknowledged chiefly as a contribution to the theory of distribution and the business cycle. Little attention has been given to the theory of effective demand and to unemployment equilibrium, i.e. to the field traditionally covered by Keynesian economics. This book is an attempt to draw attention to the most innovative core of Kalecki's thought on capitalist economies, which is also strictly interrelated to the history of economic thought. Accordingly, it focuses on the relationships with other theoretical approaches, to methodology and the theory of effective demand and investment, to the theory of distribution and prices, and to the theory of money.

These essays, though formally independent, nevertheless constitute a whole, each one preparing the way for the succeeding chapter.

Leading experts on Kalecki have contributed special essays on what economists in the 21st century have to learn from the theories of Kalecki. Authors include surviving students of Kalecki, such as Amit Bhaduri, Mario Nuti, Kazimierz Laski Jerzy Osiatynski, and Post-Keynesian economists such as Geoff Harcourt, Marc Lavoie, and Malcolm Sawyer.