From: Anders Ekeland (anders.ekeland@ONLINE.NO)
Date: Thu Oct 25 2007 - 07:55:36 EDT
At 10:42 25.10.2007, Paul Cockshott wrote: >------------------ >Anders >Remember what Sraffa calls his book. > >It is an imanent critique of political economy in its GE form. He is >showing that >Even if we accept their assumptions about equal profit rates , the >assumptions >Of neo-classical capital theory do not follow. > >Some of his followers, Steedman for example, then do assume that equal >rates of profit actually occur, but this need be no more than a >provisional critical assumption in the context of Sraffa's purpose. I am quite aware of the "prelude" character of PoCbmoC, the limited aims of this book, that it is an immanent critique - and that fragmentary biographical evidence points makes is plausible to argue that Sraffa basically was for a more dynamic view of Marx - so the target of my remarks was not Sraffa, but the linear algebraic school-. the "Sraffa inspired" models. How enthusiastic Sraffa would have been for Steedman et al. - nobody knows. Not that there is anything wrong per se about linear algebra, but the results from such models have to be proven robust with more general, dynamic models. That is, they must be true simplifications. The situation today is that they are - like GE - unable to model the dynamic formation of equilibrium prices, stability of equilibrium etc. etc. I personally find PoCbmoC very autistic, not that impressing. How is it possible to write such a book - and not relate more explicitly to the history of economic ideas, where this book places itself in the theoretical landscape etc. etc. But I cannot go into a discussion of PoCbmoC and Sraffa now. Regards Anders
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