You can see clearly here how Reich says that "Consumers are 70 percent of the American economy" by which he really means that:
(1) the "whole US economy" equals GDP (2) "consumption expenditure" equals 70% of GDP This is a misrepresentation of reality, it is just as bad as the Keynesian concept of "aggregate demand", which fails to distinguish properly between the demand for intermediate and final products and the demand for capital in various forms. These misrepresentations are typically based on the idea that capitalist exchange is "simple exchange", and capitalist production is "simple commodity production". A straightforward look at the data (you don't need a Phd for that) provides a very different picture, yet the US propaganda machine keeps repeating this error. Why? Presumably because it serves an ideological interest. A significant second "dip" is not very likely, much more likely is just a more or less stagnant economy with a low growth rate of real GDP. J. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
