Post-Keynesian

I have been inspired by Pasinetti's clear expositions. A lot of my work is an attempt to build on his theory of structural economic dynamics. Some highlights of Pasinetti's career as an economist: A derivation, in Pasinetti (1962), of the Cambridge equation, r = g/sc. Along a steady-state growth path, the rate of profit must be equal to the quotient of the rate of growth and the savings rate out of profits. This is an extension of Keynes' theory that investment creates the needed savings...

Alfred Marshall, A. C. Pigou, John Neville Keynes, and John Maynard Keynes were also all Fabian socialists. And fascism is a kind of socialism. I learn these interesting facts from Zygmund Dobbs' book, Keynes at Harvard: Economic Deception as a Political Credo. I refer to the 1962 second edition. This book was spewed out by the Veritas Foundation, a reactionary think tank, I guess, associated with a grandson of Theodore Roosevelt. This book purports to be an examination of how colleges at...

The following is from Friedrich Engels' letter to Franz Mehring of 14 July 1893: London, 14 July 1893 Dear Mr. Mehring, It has taken me until today to get round to thank you for the Lessing-Legende you were so kind as to send me. I did not wish merely to send you a formal note acknowledging receipt of the book, but also and at the same time to say something about it - its contents. Hence the delay. Let me begin at the end - with the appendix, 'II ber den...

I was prompted to write this post by Matthew Yglesias's post from Martin Luther King Day. "[A. Philip] Randolph, of course, continued as a major leader in the struggle until his death in 1979. When I became deeply involved in the civil rights movement in the fifties and sixties, I was a conscious Randolphite, dedicated to the program of an integrated class struggle against both exploitation and racism. And when I began to work with Martin Luther King, Jr., I discovered that he, too, had...

The logical possibility of the reswitching of techniques is a devastating challenge to marginalism. But the Cambridge capital controversy does not depend on the presence of reswitching. I suppose I should have links for the possibilities listed below. None of these possibilities are fluke cases. One might make a distinction between the reswitching of techniques and the recurrence of techniques. In both cases a technique is cost-minimizing at two non-overlapping ranges of the wage. If...

Lately, when trying to write up my results I use terminology from classical political economy. The table below maps some terms from classical political economy to terminology for marginalists. Terminology ClassicalMarginalistUse valueUtilitySupplyQuantity suppliedDemandQuantity demanded(Normal) profitsInterestExtra profits(Pure) economic profitsSupernormal profitsMarket pricesShort run pricesNatural pricesLong run pricesPrices of production I probably am leaving some important mapping out....

Figure 1: An Example of the Reswitching of the Order of Fertility1.0 Introduction Nobody has ever pointed out the possibility highlighted by this post, as far as I know. This post can be contrasted with this one. Talk of "switch points" and "reswitching" for the wage curves on the left pane in Figure 1 above is, arguably, an abuse of terminology. Quantity flows do not change around the switch points. The same lands are fully farmed, and the same land that is partially farmed has the same...

Barkley Rosser's professional contributions include the study of complex dynamics in economic models, development and transition economics, observations on the sociology of economists, and editorship. I knew him through Internet discussions and his editing of one of my articles. Peter Dorman has an obituary. Rosser's major book on complexity economics went through two editions. I am not sure I ever made it totally through his book. I think of him as building on, in the Post-Keynesian...

[embedded content]An Academic Lecture from Gintis I know of Herb Gintis more of as an Internet personality than through his work, mostly with Samuel Bowles. I also know of him as an important historical figure in one of those periodic purges of the Harvard economics departments. As I understand it, he went to Harvard for a graduate degree towards the end of the 1960s, intending to study mathematics. He was against the Vietnam war and fell in with a radical crowd. Given this interest in...

Figure 1: An Example of the Reswitching of the Order of Rentability1.0 Introduction Nobody has ever pointed out the possibility highlighted by this post, as far as I know. Talk of "switch points" and "reswitching" for the rent curves on the right pane in Figure 1 above is an abuse of terminology. Under capitalism, land obtains rent because land is scarce. The power of the state backs up individuals prohibiting others from using free gifts of nature. (Propertarians are about encouraging...