Jim wrote: > Julio Huato wrote: >> economies have left behind high rates of indebtedness (private or > public >> doesn't really matter as much as some people think)< > > Actually, it does matter. Private corporations and individuals can go > bankrupt, but a big strong organization such as the US government, > with the power to tax and/or print money isn't going to do so during > the foreseeable future. If we're worrying about the US economy's > future, private-sector debt is much more of a threat.
I guess that is a fair point. The state is the "concentration" of society -- to use Marx's formula. That is, the state can marshal a degree of social cooperation that corporations can't and isolated individuals exclude. The U.S. government has ampler wiggle room, although it may also dissolve -- hopefully after it serves its better purposes. Having said that, I was thinking of Reinhart and Rogoff's papers, which show rather remarkably *similar* economic experiences following credit bubbles in the public or private sector -- or in both. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
