Louis Proyect wrote: > I thought that Pollin was a Marxist.
Doug Henwood wrote: > They're not mutually exclusive really. But Bob wrote a > UMass working paper many years ago in which he (mildly) > took Minsky to task for saying that the problem with > capitalism is instability, not exploitation. Guess he's > getting softer now. Is he? Robert Pollin wrote in the Nation piece: > Minsky's Wall Street paradigm did not address all the > afflictions of free-market capitalism. In particular, > his model neglects the problems that arise from the vast > disparities of income, wealth and power that are just as > endemic to free-market capitalism as are its tendencies > toward financial instability, even though he fully > recognized that these problems exist. > > Yet Minsky's approach still provides the most powerful > lens for understanding the roots of financial > instability and developing an effective regulatory > system. As for Minsky's own words, these two quotes come from _Stabilizing an Unstable Economy_ (McGraw-Hill 2008): "It may also be maintained that capitalist societies are inequitable and inefficient. But the flaws of poverty, corruption, uneven distribution of amenities and private power, and monopoly-induced inefficiency (which can be summarized in the assertion that capitalism is unfair) are not inconsistent with the survival of a capitalist economic system. Distasteful as inequality and inefficiency may be, there is no scientific law or historical evidence that says that, to survive, an economic order must meet some standard of equity and efficiency (fairness). A capitalist economy cannot be maintained, however, if it oscillates between threats of an imminent collapse of asset values and employment and threats of accelerating inflation and rampant speculation, especially if the threats are sometimes realized. If the market system is to function well, we must arrange to constrain the uncertainty due to business cycles so that the expectations that guide investment can reflect a vision of tranquil progress." (p 6) "The proposition that capitalism is inherently flawed because it breeds inequality, inefficiency, and instability takes us quite far in setting out an ideological background for policy. However, inequality and inefficiency, though serious, have never been a barrier against the continued functioning of an economy. Instability and with it what Orwell called 'the haunting terror of unemployment' is the damning weakness of capitalism. Once the technical problem of eliminating the 'terror of unemployment' is solved, that economic program is best which minimized inequality." (p 329) Shane _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
