From: gerald_a_levy (gerald_a_levy@msn.com)
Date: Thu Sep 05 2002 - 20:24:52 EDT
In [7609] Fred wrote:
> This discussion of this issue at the beginning of the 20th century between
> Varga, Hilferding, Kautsky, and Bauer which you mention in your book
> (p. 271, footnote 10) looks interesting.
Other participants in that debate included J.v.G. ("Goldproduktion und
Preisbeweung" , _Die Neue Zeit_, 30 Jg, l9ll/l9l2, I Bd, pp. 660-664)
and Spectator ("Zur Frage der Goldproduktion und Teuerung",
_Die Neue Zeit_, 30 Jg, l9ll/l9l2, II Bd, pp. 550-553.) J.v.G.
supported the Bauer-Kautsky position and Spectator (M. Nakhimson),
although he conceded that Bauer raised legitimate objections to Varga's
theory and method, claimed that empirically Varga's position on rent in
the gold-extraction industry was the more correct.
> Do you know
> of any part of this discussion that has been translated into English?
Karl Kautsky short book _The High Cost of Living_ (sub-titled
"Changes in Gold-Production and the Rise in Prices"; Chicago,
Charles H. Kerr & Company, l9l5, without the translators' introduction
98 pages.) Although it was written for a popular audience, in a sense
Kautsky got the 'last word' in this debate with the publication of this
book.
What was being debated in the l9l0-l9l2 debate was of immediate
political importance to German and Austrian Social Democracy --
what was the cause of inflation and what causal relation, if any,
existed between changes in gold production and the general rise in
prices? -- and was far removed from debates over the
transformation problem.
In solidarity, Jerry
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