Robert Vienneau: Thoughts Economics

"Typically 2 the integer is used for counting, whereas 2 the real number is used for measuring. But in higher mathematics there's a technical sense in which integers aren't real numbers -- we say instead that they can be identified with real numbers." -- Timothy Gowers 1.0 Introduction Numbers, in some sense, are only defined in mathematics up to isomorphisms. This post runs quickly through some math to explain what this means. I begin by assuming knowledge of the natural numbers,...

These seem to be resources for providing the student with an overview of schools of thought, fields, and the history of economics. Exploring Economics is set up by the Network for Pluralist Economics. Here is their overview of Post Keynesianism. Economics Education is a webpage "built by Sam de Muijnck and Joris Tieleman of Rethinking Economics Netherlands." Here is their page on feminist economics. Here is their page on Post Keynesian economics. This is their page on (original)...

Zach Carter's The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, amd the Life of John Maynard Keynes. James Crotty's Keynes Against Capitalism: His Economic Case for Liberal Socialism. Stephanie Kelton's The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy. Stephen Marglin's to-be-published Raising Keynes: A Twenty-First-Century General Theory. I think his earlier Growth, Distribution, and Prices parallels Donald Harris' even earlier Capital Accumulation and Income...

"One must be able to say at all times - instead of points, straight lines, and planes -- tables, chairs, and beer mugs." -- David Hilbert (as quoted by Constance Reid, Hilbert, Springer-Verlag, 1970: p. 57) Consider the Fibonacci sequence: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, ... The first two terms in this sequence are 1 and 2. After this, each term is the arithmetic sum of the previous two terms. Let A be the set of elements in this series. Let s be the function mapping an element in A onto another...

... If you speak of a revolution in mathematics, you are likely to be treated to the ironic response, "Oh, so two and two now make five?" We can answer: "Why not? Suppose we ask for the delivery of two articles each weighing two pounds; they are delivered in a box weighing one pound; then in this package two pounds and two pounds will make five pounds!" "But you get five pounds by adding three weights, 2 and 2 and 1."" "True, our operation '2 and 2 make 5' is not an addition in the...

I have long been convinced that many mainstream economists, however they performed under hazing, do not understand mathematics. "T. C. Koopmans, perhaps the greatest defender of the use of the mathematical tool in economics, countered the criticism of the exaggeration of mathematical symbolism by claiming that the critics have not come forward with specific complaints. The occasion was a symposium held in 1954 around a protest by David Novick. But, by an irony of fate, some twenty years...

I have been exploring Sraffa's correspondence after the publication of his book. Here is a letter dated June 18, 1962, from Mathur to Sraffa (D3/12/111: 298): Dear Mr. Sraffa, In Nuffield there is a senior research student Edmund Nell who is attached to the faculty of Literae Humaniores[?] and is researching into the significance of concepts in economics. He is highly interested in the type of analysis you have proposed, and has been trying to work his way through it. In Oxford there...

[embedded content]Neoclassical Political Economy You may have seen the above overly polite video. I have not done this in a while, even before the pandemic. I used to, when I visited an academic bookstore or a college library, skim through textbooks, concentrating on introductory or intermediate microeconomics. Economics is in an extraordinary state, where the textbooks are full of nonsense that has been known to be logically invalid for half a century. Here is an example. David D....

Marx is mostly right. That is the conclusion one should draw from capital theory. But honestly understanding how we are fed, clothed, and housed under capitalism is not what academic economics is about. Ownership of property in, say, the United States results in the generation of income. This income takes the form of interest on debt, dividends, capital gains, rent, and so on. Many of those who are among the most wealthy often have returns to property ownership as their only source of...

1.0 Introduction One inspiration for this post is stumbling across this abstract 2.0 Marx Start with labor coefficients and a Leontief input/output matrix, in physical terms. You can construct this from make and use tables for your country, given price indices by sectors. For any existing capitalist economy, I expect that matrix to characterize a more than viable economy. After all the capital goods used up in producing the final demand in, say, a year are reproduced, some commodities...