I agree with Robin Hahnel that externalities are pervasive
in market economies and that a great deal of mispricing
occurs as a result. The question that needs addressing,
though, is how to calculate externalities accurately
enough without a decentralized, flexible price system. To
In response to Rhon Baiman:
1) Social division of labor: agreed that this is important
for socialism. But can't a substantial measure of social
control over the division of labor be handled *directly*
and decentrally via workers' self-management, and *indirectly*
and centrally via investment
In an effort to initiate a non-US dominated topic, what
would people on the list do if they were put in charge of
economic policy in Bulgaria today?
Peter
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Thad Williamson asks:
1)As has already been noted on the list, some of the Wall Street crowd have
been crowing that the business cycle has been tamed, and that nothing but
blue skies are ahead for a moderately growing economy. Does anyone on this
list see any reason to take this at all
My email's been down this weekend, so I've only just seen
Robin Hahnel's reply to my post on Devine and Schweickart.
I'm well aware that Pat Devine and Schweickart would
characterize their models as being substantially opposed.
I've read the RRPE articles referred to by Prof.
In reply to Robin Hahnel: I've read Devine's work
[Democracy and Economic Planning] and I would not
characterize it as anti-market socialist as far as
substance goes (as against labels). In common with most
advocates of market socialism, Devine calls for planning
of investment,
Rosser Jr, John Barkley informs us:
3) One reason for the current interest in Kondratiev
in Russia is that he was verboten for a long time. He was
an ally of Bukharin's in the planning debates of the 1920s,
worked in the Vesenkha and supported the NEP and was
executed during the
Rosser Jr, John Barkley informs us:
3) One reason for the current interest in Kondratiev
in Russia is that he was verboten for a long time. He was
an ally of Bukharin's in the planning debates of the 1920s,
worked in the Vesenkha and supported the NEP and was
executed during the
They certainly weren't instances of *socialism* from
below, but weren't the social/political movements which
resulted in the overthrow of Communist regimes in much of
Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union nonetheless
*revolutions* from below (at least in some cases)? If so,
PA 26 Dec 96 4:56 GMT S7257
Copyright 1996 PA. Copying, storing, redistribution, retransmission,
publication, transfer or commercial exploitation of this information is
expressly forbidden.
By Philip Thornton, Business Editor, PA News
STOCK MARKET 'PERFORMS NO BETTER UNDER TORIES'
Responding to me, Ken Hanly writes:
COMMENT: Agreed that the Cuban economy is in considerable trouble
surely two of the main causes of this are: i) the US led isolation
of the Cuban economy from profitable export markets, even to the point
of alienating the US's own trading partners through
So, in other words (or pedantically if you like), you
still haven't got the foggiest? So much for "rigorous
accounting and control methods". Oh well, let us know if
you're any further ahead in 2 and a half years' time.
Peter
__ Reply Separator
Question for Louis Proyect:
How do the central planners know which relative prices to
set for all the goods and services in the economy?
Peter
Louis writes:
Peter, your problem is that you are not really interested discussing real
countries in the real world. It is much more convenient to discuss
abstract models.
Louis, a few points. I am not an economist, professional
or otherwise. I am someone with an interest in
I received the post below from the Left/religion list run
by Chris Faatz. It concerns the very low pay Disney has
been giving workers producing Disney products in poor 3rd
World countries. I was struck by the contrast between the
figures cited below paid to these workers and the
A group of chess enthusiasts had checked into a hotel, and
were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament
victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and
asked them to disperse.
"But why?", they asked, as they moved off.
"Because," he said, "I
Subject: $250 Cookie Recipe
This is a true story. Pass it on!!!
My daughter I had just finished a salad at Neiman-Marcus Cafe in Dallas
decided to have a small dessert. Because both of us are such cookie
lovers, we decided to try the "Neiman-Marcus Cookie". It was so
PA 14 Nov 96 21:43 GMT S9627
Copyright 1996 PA. Copying, storing, redistribution, retransmission,
publication, transfer or commercial exploitation of this information is
expressly forbidden.
By Gavin Cordon, Political Correspondent, PA News
'CASSANDRA' LABOUR MP SAVAGES BLAIR
PA 15 Nov 96 5:34 GMT S0139
Copyright 1996 PA. Copying, storing, redistribution, retransmission,
publication, transfer or commercial exploitation of this information is
expressly forbidden.
By Simeon Tegel, PA News
WEALTH GAP 'FROZEN'
The wealth gap between rich and poor has
Tony Blair is currently presiding over the total
Clintonization of the Labour Party. Despite this, he
is not popular with British women. So what does Tony
decide to do? Change his hairstyle!
Peter
__ Reply Separator
Why does a choice have to be made between private capitalist--or
even private cooperative--ownership on the one hand and state
ownership albeit a democratic state on the other? This is
to presuppose that property is one thing and must be vested
whole and entire in one kind of social actor or
A non-economist friend asks this question:
Are there any official documents or declarations anywhere
about the minimum daily food requirement in $ and c. below
which people are regarded as "in poverty"?
Private replies are fine.
Peter
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ecumenical News International
ENI News Service
9 October 1996
World Bank to invite religious leaders to values summit
ENI-96-0581
By Edmund Doogue
Washington, DC, 9 October (ENI)--The World Bank will invite
leaders of the world's main religions to Washington next year to
discuss
Robert Cherry insists on honesty with regard to the
inflationary potential of raising the minimum wage.
He is right to warn against simply adopting neoclassical
long run ideas for the purpose of discounting that
potential, and as others have noted too, progressives
needn't fall
I thought this might be worth posting in light of recent
discussion of the trends in academia--Peter
__ Forward Header __
Subject: For the academics on the list: tenure
Author: Ingrid Shafer [EMAIL PROTECTED] at SMTPLINK-LMU
Date:
I generally read the NY Times every day (even though I
live in LA). And one things keeps striking me. Many of
the articles, op-ed pieces etc dealing with domestic US
issues take a line that is in favor of a welfare state, a
meaningful regulatory system, critical of growing
I've read in several places that the real value of AFDC
payments has declined by 46 percent since 1970, and that
even when food stamps are added, the combined real value
has gone down 26 percent. Since 1970 out-of-wedlock
births have increased by over 75 percent.
The obvious
Here's a fact that those of us who have little time for
Hayek and Mises recognize, but which the followers of
those two do not. The largest, most sustained, and most
widely distributed improvement in living conditions for
poor and working people occurred in the least free-market
I remember being quite taken with a letter written by a
post-Keynesian economics professor (Paul Davidson?) which
appeared in the NY Times last year. It took the form of a
little thought experiment that went something roughly like
this. You abolish welfare, thus forcing more
Just to amend slightly my last post on this subject. I
think in the letter it was suggested that the process of
unemployment reduction would be hastened at each stage by
the unemployed voluntarily accepting lower wages than the
prevailing rates. Of course, since this would reduce
Gil Skillman writes in reply to me:
Well, yes and no. Yes, pareto efficiency is essentially blind to
distributional issues, and perforce to redistributional moves. No, that
doesn't make it absolutely unhelpful.
I didn't say it was *absolutely* unhelpful, just profoundly so.
Having
Isn't there something profoundly unhelpful about a concept
of efficiency which would define some allocation of
resources as "unimprovably efficient", while there is a
feasible re-allocation of resources which would make, say,
95 percent of people 10 percent better off, and 5 percent
Now Maggie, if only you had shown more entrepreneurial
spirit, that could have been *you* selling that bumper
sticker. Instead you old silly old moral considerations
to get in the way of a great market opportunity. Tut,
tut.
Peter
__ Reply
I don't believe I ever accused Mr Etchison of being a
libertarian. I asked him to read and respond to some
posts of mine critiquing libertarianism. I may have
accused him of being driven by a pro-market ideology
(though not libertarianism specifically), and I think this
is a
My thanks to Doug Orr and James Michael Craven for their
remarks on libertarianism. It warms the cockles of my
heart to read such good, hard-hitting sense, without a
trace of capitulation or concession to the pathology they
attack.
I think it's time the left in America
Isn't it impossible to define efficiency in abstraction
from some end(s) one wishes to promote? For example, what
is efficient if one's goal is long-term wants-satisfaction
may not be efficient if one's goal is long-term needs
satisfaction; or to take two rather different goals,
It is worth checking out the following pieces
from New Left Review:
Peter Gowan, 'Neo-Liberal Theory and Practice
for Eastern Europe' NLR 213, Sept/Oct 1995
and the debate this article provoked between
Gowan and John Lloyd in NLR 216, Mar/April 1996.
On the political
I note my name has come up on this list several times
in connection with the question of bigotry, anti-Muslim
and anti-Catholic.
Well, my football (soccer) team, Glasgow Celtic (NOT
CelticS)--nickname, The Bhoys (yes, with an 'h', it's
the Irish connection)--recently launched a
38 matches
Mail list logo
