From: Allin Cottrell (cottrell@WFU.EDU)
Date: Sun Mar 18 2007 - 23:04:36 EDT
On Sat, 17 Mar 2007, Pen-L Fred Moseley wrote: > M is whatever it is in the real capitalist economy. With > unlimited resources, one could estimate M. But this is not > necessary for the theory. M is an actual magnitude, which > exists prior to the production of the output, and which can be > taken as given as such, whatever it is. I think Paul has a good point in his critique of the "given-ness" of M. Duncan Foley has made a related point, which pertains to Fred's claim that M (whatever it is) "exists prior to the production of the output". That is, a stash of "money to be advanced" can be said to exist _prior_ to production only (a) at the micro level of individual firms (perhaps!) or (b) in a fictional economy on a synchronized annual agricultural cycle. In real capitalist economies production cycles are of various time spans and are intertwined. There's no macroeconomic time "prior to production" at which one could count up M. (What we can count: stocks at a point in time, anf flows over a definite period of time). Ian made the point that sums of money have a real existence, whether as stashes of coin or as bit patterns on bank computer hard drives (I paraphrase). That's true, but Paul's point is that it's not at all clear which of these real money-tokens should be added up to give Fred's "M". Allin Cottrell
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