sounds like Joan Robinson.
> > > [who said it?] > > "...confusion forces practical economists to explain the determination of > interest by opportunity cost reasoning - a particular rate of interest > being set by the 'pure' rate yielded by the riskless government bonds, > with inflation, risk, and administrative cost premia added. But there is > no watertight justification for the perpetual existence of this 'pure' > rate. Interest exists because it is there; it is still held up by its own > theoretical bootstraps. The failure of mainstream economics to explain > adequately the existence of interest betrays the fact that it is merely a > theoretical concept with no true basis in reality. It is a figment of our > collective imaginations." >
