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Wednesday, December 14, 2011

What do Uncle Fidel, Hugo Chavez and the OWS miscreants have in common? They don't know supply and demand economics.



http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2011/11/venezuela-repeals-laws-of-suppy-and.html

9 comments:

EconPirate said...

Hey Dr P., not related to your blog post but as a scholar of the Great Depression, I would love to hear your take on this article:

http://m.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/01/stiglitz-depression-201201

I didn't think this theory had been valid for decades. But I'm no Nobel laureate. Then again, Stiglitz won his prize for research regarding market information and neither business cycle nor economic history.

Randall Parker said...

There is alot right and alot not so right. Let me make one quick comment here. If it is infrastructure he wants then have Uncle Joe call BO and tell him to approve the Keystone XL pipeline for starters. That would create 20,000 UNION jobs tomorrow and would not cost one dime in taxpayer money. Not to mention reduce our dependence on Mideast oil and the underwriting of petro-terrorism. Do it NOW jackass!

EconPirate said...

I was hoping to hear your take on his analysis regarding the great depression. I didn't think agriculture related issues were a part of the mainstream thought nowadays. I don't recall that being mentioned in the preface of your own texts. Stiglitz has no mention of the gold standard and little mention of monetary contraction.

Randall Parker said...

EconPirate: He is correct about the agriculture thing and the Great Depression, although all of his causal factors are not complete. But it is close enough to say that he is referring to what is called "the debt deflation hypothesis", something I happen to believe in quite strongly (and am writing a book on). When the fall in commoditiy prices and the deflation from whatever souce happened, the farming sector was the first to be devastated. Relative price change is a great deal of the story of the Depression for the first year. You will find debtr deflatoin all through my books. It just is not worded quite the same as Uncle Joe worded his essay. My book on debt dflation will have alot to say about agriculture as farmers were the most vocal group for the promotion of price stability. I also feel he is right about the structural change in our economy. But the same thing happened in the 1800s with agriculture. However, when he cites the OWS crowd as the ones who "get it" it is time to pull the plug.

EconPirate said...

I'm assuming by "casual factors are not complete" you are referring to the claim that productivity gains and overproduction were the causes of the depression?

Some in the Econ blogosphere are really bashing this Stiglitz piece.

EconPirate said...

Also, I do remember references to debt-deflation in your books. Just not the overproduction/productivity in agriculture as a cause.

Randall Parker said...

Right. How is excessive productivity ever a malaise? If it were then what is the fix? Prohibit productivity? Nay nay that is the key force in the fight against scarcity. There are arguments out there, Austrian in nature, that argue it was excessive investment that caused the Depression along with a credit bubble and they make some sense.

HomieTheClown said...

I counted three instance where you used "alot" within these comments. And just to think you're the same prof that was so ornery regarding "affect" and "effect". Silly how people act regarding things that are completely arbitrary and pointless such as grammar.

Randall Parker said...

You forgot "there" and "their" too. Time to grow up Harris, I mean Homie.