I really wonder why we should call each year "new" when really it's very much 
the same as the old one.  For a time, I called it the Gnu year in honour of the 
Wildebeest.  Before that, it was Hoppy New Year, in honour of rabbits.  
However, whatever it is, do have as good a time as you can and, as Arthur 
suggests, stay healthy.

Ed

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: de Bivort Lawrence 
  To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION 
  Sent: Tuesday, January 01, 2013 11:14 PM
  Subject: Re: [Futurework] Nobel Prize -- was Re: [Ottawadissenters] Hey,you 
gotta watch dem machines...


  Happy new year, everyone!


  Lawry




  On Jan 1, 2013, at 10:20 PM, Ray Harrell wrote:


    you scratch my ____   I'll...........



    From: [email protected] 
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Arthur Cordell
    Sent: Tuesday, January 01, 2013 9:54 PM
    To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION'
    Subject: Re: [Futurework] Nobel Prize -- was Re: [Ottawadissenters] Hey, 
you gotta watch dem machines...



    Arthur, when are you going to nominate me for the Nobel Prize?

    Keith
    ============



    Keith your very presence on this list is a prize for all of us who take the 
time to read and think about your postings.



    Arthur





    From: [email protected] 
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Keith Hudson
    Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2012 9:54 AM
    To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION
    Subject: [Futurework] Nobel Prize -- was Re: [Ottawadissenters] Hey, you 
gotta watch dem machines...



    At 03:27 30/12/2012, AC wrote:

    Krugman’s Nobel was in a very conventional aspect of economic theory.  He 
made certain breakthroughs.  Don’t know whether that makes him qualified to 
comment on this and that.  The NY Times likes him.  And that apparently is good 
enough.
     
    See below
    http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/2008/press.html 
    Patterns of trade and location have always been key issues in the economic 
debate. What are the effects of free trade and globalization? What are the 
driving forces behind worldwide urbanization? Paul Krugman has formulated a new 
theory to answer these questions. He has thereby integrated the previously 
disparate research fields of international trade and economic geography.


    (KH) As far as I can see (below) Krugman's approach supplies nothing new -- 
bog standard economic history. Everything he describes is after the event -- 
after the fact of urban centres. Why did they occur? Where did they occur?  
When did they occur? He doesn't seem to answer those.

    Well, I'll tell you. Almost all major conurbations lie at what were  
previously major ports (even if they're not so busy today), The remainder are 
on rivers. In times past they all had many manufacturing areas and developed 
major warehousing (for stuff made in the interior of the country) and financial 
sectors. (Clerks alone were many thousands strong in all large trading 
port-cities. Until WW2 every Bill of Sale needed to be hand-written three times 
[there was no other adequate copying method]. One copy went to the merchant's 
own bank [wherever it was in the world], another copy went to the 
counterparty's bank [wherever that was], and the last copy went to a merchant 
bank in the City of London which acted as an honest broker between the two 
parties (who might be on opposite sides of the earth and, if it's a first 
contract between them, couldn't trust one another).  

    Take this cluster of major trading ports back to the late middle ages -- 
the 17th century, say. There was no globalized trading system. There were four 
smaller ones. 1. The low European countries and the Mediterranean; 2. The 
Mediterranean based on Venice-Florence-Genoa 3. The Arab based on the Red Sea; 
4. The Indian based on the Indian Ocean; 5. The Chinese based on  South-East 
Asia and islands.

    The merchant adventurers of the last three systems had lateen (steerable) 
sails on their boats and could tack against the wind if necessary and cross 
oceans. 3 and 4 were not ready culturally. Chinese merchants, already too rich 
for the Emperor's liking, were forbidden to use their lateen sails. However, 
when Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus decided to use lateen sails in 
order to cross oceans, they opened the whole world  and spelled the end of the 
five previous systems.

    The ports that these sailing ships chose had to be able to offer safe water 
to, usually thousands of boats of all nationalities and sometimes for weeks if 
storms raged. This further consolidated them as cosmopolitan cities where many 
languages were spoken. Most of them in Europe became free cities or city-states 
-- far more powerful, financially and militarily than the country around them.

    The above, then, are the true beginnings of the globalized trade system we 
have today.  As we have more and more automation and as factories can become 
smaller and smaller, the bulk of tomorrow's manufacturing will also take place 
in the megacities. 

    Arthur, when are you going to nominate me for the Nobel Prize?

    Keith

      
     
    Krugman's approach is based on the premise that many goods and services can 
be produced more cheaply in long series, a concept generally known as economies 
of scale. Meanwhile, consumers demand a varied supply of goods. As a result, 
small-scale production for a local market is replaced by large-scale production 
for the world market, where firms with similar products compete with one 
another.

    Traditional trade theory assumes that countries are different and explains 
why some countries export agricultural products whereas others export 
industrial goods. The new theory clarifies why worldwide trade is in fact 
dominated by countries which not only have similar conditions, but also trade 
in similar products – for instance, a country such as Sweden that both exports 
and imports cars. This kind of trade enables specialization and large-scale 
production, which result in lower prices and a greater diversity of commodities.
    Economies of scale combined with reduced transport costs also help to 
explain why an increasingly larger share of the world population lives in 
cities and why similar economic activities are concentrated in the same 
locations. Lower transport costs can trigger a self-reinforcing process whereby 
a growing metropolitan population gives rise to increased large-scale 
production, higher real wages and a more diversified supply of goods. This, in 
turn, stimulates further migration to cities. Krugman's theories have shown 
that the outcome of these processes can well be that regions become divided 
into a high-technology urbanized core and a less developed "periphery".
     
     
    From: [email protected] [ 
mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ed Weick
    Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2012 2:57 PM
    To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION
    Subject: Re: [Futurework] [Ottawadissenters] Hey, you gotta watch dem 
machines...
     
    What I've liked about the many columns and few books by Krugman that I've 
read is that, like me, he doesn't like the growing income gap between the rich 
and poor, the growing power of money, the hollowing out of the economy by the 
application of technology and the export of jobs, and the growth and 
disenfranchisement of the poor.  While he is an economist, a Nobel laureate at 
that, I see him more as a commentator who is pointing at growing problems that 
need attention and consistent work even if they are very difficult to resolve.
     
    Ed 
     
     

    ----- Original Message ----- 

    From: Arthur Cordell 

    To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION' 

    Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2012 2:33 PM

    Subject: Re: [Futurework] [Ottawadissenters] Hey,you gotta watch dem 
machines...



    But through his incessant trumpeting of outdated solutions he blocks 
innovative thinking, new ideas.  Yes he asks some questions but seems to fear 
going down the road to possible solutions.



    Arthur





    From: [email protected] [ 
mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of michael gurstein

    Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2012 1:51 PM

    To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION'

    Subject: Re: [Futurework] [Ottawadissenters] Hey, you gotta watch dem 
machines...



    But then all we have is the neo-lib conventional wisdom Economics 101 echo 
chamber… At least he asks a few of the right questions…



    M



    From: [email protected] [ 
mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Arthur Cordell

    Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2012 10:44 AM

    To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION'; 
[email protected]

    Subject: Re: [Futurework] [Ottawadissenters] Hey, you gotta watch dem 
machines...



    Let’s put Krugman out to pasture.  He is becoming repetitive and boring.



    From: [email protected] [ 
mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Sally Lerner

    Sent: Friday, December 28, 2012 3:13 PM

    To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION; 
[email protected]

    Subject: Re: [Futurework] [Ottawadissenters] Hey, you gotta watch dem 
machines...



    Yes, the bit tax, and basic income as well. Let's put Krugman in the loop.  
Sally 


----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    From: [email protected] 
[[email protected]] on behalf of Arthur Cordell 
[[email protected]]

    Sent: Friday, December 28, 2012 12:11 PM

    To: [email protected]; 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME 
DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION'

    Subject: Re: [Futurework] [Ottawadissenters] Hey, you gotta watch dem 
machines...

    Seems like Krugman is finally beginning to move away from his learned 
dogma.  Perhaps he has been reading Keith’s postings.  In any event time to 
think about policies for a digital economy and time to think again about the 
bit tax as a way of distributing the productivity of a highly automated economy 
so as to maintain effective demand.



    Arthur





    From: [email protected] [ 
mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ed Weick

    Sent: Friday, December 28, 2012 7:05 AM

    To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION'; 
[email protected]

    Subject: [Ottawadissenters] Hey, you gotta watch dem machines...





    Krugman's piece in this morning's NYTimes appears to take us well into the 
realm of science fiction.  But then maybe it isn't fiction any more?



    
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/28/opinion/krugman-is-growth-over.html?hp&_r=0 



    Ed



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