Re: [PEN-L] Lange

[michael a. lebowitz]

Hi Michael,
        
At 17:30 29/10/2004, you wrote:

Thanks, Michael, but I do not recall him being engaged in any radical activity or movement.  Could you bring us up to speed.
 

        I'm away from any sources that might help me to answer this, and my recollections are very vague. I have a feeling he supported the Left Opposition before he returned to Poland after WWII. Certainly, his comments in Economics of Socialism about bureaucracy as the main threat and references elsewhere about industrial serfdom in the USSR suggest this. Does anyone have a clue?

Mirowski's book shows how his work with Cowles had very negative effects.  Many of the people involved were socialists, but their mathematical economics led the discipline down the wrong path.

Can you tell us something about his work with Cowles (ie., what Mirowski says about this)? I seem to remember some very interesting work on the interest rate.
        michael L

 
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA
95929
 
-----Original Message-----
From: PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of michael a. lebowitz
Sent: Friday, October 29, 2004 2:26 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [PEN-L] Lange
 
At 16:27 29/10/2004, michael P. wrote:



In the case of Lange, I do not know that he was radical in style at all.  I am not
sure that he got involved in any radical movements & his methodology (as Mirowski
shows) helped to fuel the modern market friendly world we live in today.

Lange was a communist, and I think he's had a bum rap--- just because he demonstrated that neoclassical general equilibrium theory could be hoisted on its own petard. In the very same work in which he did his thing with GE theory, he went on to discuss the process of transition in the following way (quoted from my book, p. 192):

"Thus, Lange (1964: 129) commented that, for an economist called upon to advise a government that wants to do more than administer a capitalist economy, �there exists only one economic policy which he can commend to a socialist government as likely to lead to success. This is a policy of revolutionary courage�."

        in solidarity,
        michael

Michael A. Lebowitz
Professor Emeritus
Economics Department
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6

Currently based in Venezuela. Can be reached at
Residencias Anauco Suites
Departamento 601
Parque Central, Zona Postal 1010, Oficina 1
Caracas, Venezuela
(58-212) 573-4111
fax: (58-212) 573-7724

Michael A. Lebowitz

Professor Emeritus

Economics Department

Simon Fraser University

Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6

Currently based in Venezuela. Can be reached at

Residencias Anauco Suites

Departamento 601

Parque Central, Zona Postal 1010, Oficina 1

Caracas, Venezuela

(58-212) 573-4111

fax: (58-212) 573-7724