Chris, You thought, for some reason the Pettigrew quote was significant when actually it says nothing. It was:
"<<In Ricardo's time, however, the factors of production were essentially immobile. This is no longer the case. In the new economy, all the decisive factors -- trade, production, technology, distribution, finance -- are integrated. On a world scale these factors are extremely mobile. Consequently, the effects of tree trade are no longer necessarily positive for everyone.>> How about? <<In Ricardo's time, however, the factors of production were essentially immobile. This is no longer the case. In the new economy, all the decisive factors -- trade, production, technology, distribution, finance -- are integrated. On a world scale these factors are extremely mobile. Consequently, the effects of tree trade are no longer necessarily negative for everyone.>> Makes just as much sense. Harry ******************************************** Henry George School of Social Science of Los Angeles Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 Tel: 818 352-4141 -- Fax: 818 353-2242 http://haledward.home.comcast.net ******************************************** -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Christoph Reuss Sent: Sunday, November 23, 2003 2:28 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Futurework] David Ricardo, Caveman Trade vs. Modern Trade It seems that the NI's interpretations of Ricardo's assumptions can be verified by a web search at credible sources: Keith Hudson wrote: > <<<< > Excerpt from the New Internationalist's "No-Nonsense Guide to Globalization": > (NI Publications Ltd, UK 2002, pp. 14-15) ... > Ricardo wrote that nations should specialize in producing goods in > which they have a natural advantage and thereby find their market > niche. He believed this would benefit both buyer and seller but only > if certain conditions were maintained, such as > (1) that trade between partners must be balanced so that one country > doesn't become indebted and dependent on another >>>> > > He never said this. He said that "that trade between partners becomes > balanced " -- that is, automatically. One of Ricardo's _assumptions_ was that "Trade is balanced -- thus ruling out flows of money between nations." (#11 in http://emlab.berkeley.edu/users/webfac/mdalal/e181_su02/e181note1 .pdf ) > <<<< > and > (2) that investment capital must be anchored locally and not allowed to > flow from a high wage country to a low-wage country. > >>>> > > He would never have said this. It is quite at variance with everything > he wrote. "Ricardo fundamentally assumed capital mobility *within* not *between* countries" (quoting a Cambridge economist at http://www.wwwolf.co.uk/ifs/9606_cvr.htm ) --- Anyway, independent of details of interpretation of Ricardo's assumptions, my point remains that Ricardo's theory (as well as Keith's stone-age model in general) is obsolete because modern trade is different and far more complex. The result is that it is invalid to come to the same conclusions today as in Ricardo's time. Canada's International Trade Minister, Pierre Pettigrew, agrees when he writes in "The New Politics of Confidence" (Toronto, Stoddard, 2000) under the title "The End of the Dogma of Free trade", p.10: <<In Ricardo's time, however, the factors of production were essentially immobile. This is no longer the case. In the new economy, all the decisive factors -- trade, production, technology, distribution, finance -- are integrated. On a world scale these factors are extremely mobile. Consequently, the effects of tree trade are no longer necessarily positive for everyone.>> Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.541 / Virus Database: 335 - Release Date: 11/14/2003 _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
