Jim Devine wrote, >Most macroeconomists are aware of something akin to this phenomenon. >Instead of workers clinging to jobs, it's a matter of employers holding >onto overhead workers (staff, management) even though they aren't needed as >much as when demand is high. Overhead employment is one key reason why >profit rates take a dive when the economy goes into a recession. So in this case, according to Jim, labour hoarding is "akin to" its opposite job hoarding. It's only akin to in the sense that one is the inverse of the other, in the same way as 1/10 is "akin to" 10. >With either theory, >however, you get similar results. Please, Jim, do loan me a couple of thousand dollars. I'll let you pay me back at your convenience. >Are you saying that "suctional unemployment" is _hidden unemployment_ (not >measured by official stats) because existing employees are not working up >to potential? Not at all. It's one of the components of measured unemployment like frictional, structural and technological. Suctional unemployment is, in a sense, an "overshoot". >i don't understand this. It's hard to imagine accelerating suctional >unemployment, because as a recession persists and/or deepens, employers >start laying off the overhead employees in droves. > >In what sense is the NASURU the mirror image of the NAIRU? First, in order to try to imagine this chimera, you have to let go of the non-sequitur that job hoarding is "akin to" labour hoarding and that therefore what we're talking about is the later and not the former. I'm not not not not not talking about labour hoarding. Second, I would see the NASURU as the mirror image of the NAIRU in terms of its one-sidedness. I think both are fanciful precisely because they project some sort of totalizing power on one side or other of the class struggle. I offer NASURU as a thought experiment, not as a description of reality. On second thought, wasn't Friedman's "natural rate" hypothesis presented as a thought experiment? Regards, Tom Walker ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ #408 1035 Pacific St. Vancouver, B.C. V6E 4G7 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (604) 669-3286 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The TimeWork Web: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/
