Jim Devine wrote, >It's a good critique of the MF's NAIRU (or what the MF unscientifically >calls the "natural rate of unemployment" as if there were anything natural >about the economy). However, I don't see Jamie as dealing with other >theories of the NAIRU. Put another way, he doesn't look for the "rational >core" in the midst of the MF's almost-totally ideological conceptions. What Jamie says, in effect, is that the MF's concept of NAIRU cannot be rescued through the expedient of "two, three, many NAIRUs . . ." That just further manifests its fundamental incoherence. If, as you say, Carlin and Soskice attempt to rescue NAIRU by relating it to the bargaining power/conflict theory of inflation, they thereby jettison the labour market model in which NAIRU is held to have relevance. If NAIRU can be rescued by relating it to the Marxist reserve army of labor, then NAIRUvians need only embrace the dictatorship of the proletariat to avoid the inflation/unemployment dilemma. What, hey? I don't think anybody -- certainly not Galbraith -- is denying that there is some relationship between inflation, unemployment and fiscal policy. What is being questioned is that the relationship involves _acceleration_ and that it occurs through the action of the price mechanism in a _labor market_. If it doesn't look like a duck and it doesn't walk like a duck, what's the point of trying to show that it is nevertheless a duck, provided one's definition of duckness is sufficiently broad? Look, it's the MF ideological concept of NAIRU that has had policy consequences over the past 30 years. Do "alternative explanations" of NAIRU support those same policy directions? If they don't, they have no relevance to Galbraith's discussion. They are, in the most pejorative sense of the word, "academic". Regards, Tom Walker ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ #408 1035 Pacific St. Vancouver, B.C. V6E 4G7 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (604) 669-3286 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The TimeWork Web: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/
