tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post5367805080905876750..comments2024-03-06T06:34:42.881-05:00Comments on EconoSpeak: "Say's Law sank without trace."Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-84533819949474548142014-06-30T13:23:49.524-04:002014-06-30T13:23:49.524-04:00"Marx comes very close to using the phrase, b..."Marx comes very close to using the phrase, but in Volume II of his Theories of Surplus Value, which were not published until the 20th century."<br /><br />Yes, I addressed Marx's odd response to Say in <a href="http://econospeak.blogspot.com/2014/06/you-dont-say.html" rel="nofollow">Supply Creates Its Own Demon II: You Don't, Say!</a>. Marx snubbed Say by excluding him from his list of bourgeois political economists who advance a "compensation theory" regarding workers displaced by machines. But he clearly owes a substantial debt to the anonymous 1821 pamphlet that refuted Say vigorously.Sandwichmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11159060882083015637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-8297435694966198432014-06-30T12:51:26.807-04:002014-06-30T12:51:26.807-04:00There are timing issues too. Marx comes very clos...There are timing issues too. Marx comes very close to using the phrase, but in Volume II of his Theories of Surplus Value, which were not published until the 20th century. He criticized the law, focusing particularly on Ricardo's formulation, the clearest and strongest, drawing on James Mill, with Ricardo the one attributing its origin to Say, with Marx criticizing Ricardo for "repeating Say's childish babble." <br /><br />BTW, Say coined the word "entrepreneur," although of course we know that one of the supposed problems with the French according to some Americans is that they do not have a word for "entrepreneur," :-).rosserjb@jmu.eduhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09300046915843554101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-6572239775393350342014-06-30T12:36:06.710-04:002014-06-30T12:36:06.710-04:00I agree that it is a sideshow just how widely the ...I agree that it is a sideshow just how widely the term "Say's Law" was used in the 19th century, a matter of debate among historians of thought, and it is certainly the case that the term "law of markets" was far more widely used, although sometimes with Say's name attached. Ironically it was Keynes's denunciation of said "law" that made the terminology especially famous.<br /><br />And I am glad that you agree that Say himself did not see "his" law as holding universally, even if he wrote passages that have been quoted widely to support it.rosserjb@jmu.eduhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09300046915843554101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-19326049700226761402014-06-30T09:01:09.020-04:002014-06-30T09:01:09.020-04:00John Badlam Howe in 1878, "Say's law, tha...John Badlam Howe in 1878, "Say's law, that there can be no overproduction" and Karl Rodbertus, translated in 1898 "Say's law".Both instances are in rebuttals. Not what I would rate as a "common usage."<br /><br />But this really digresses from what we AGREE on, Barkley, which is that Say didn't present it as an inexorable law from which there is no escape. Sandwichmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11159060882083015637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-44946762640430544382014-06-30T04:19:24.125-04:002014-06-30T04:19:24.125-04:00Well, it was called "Say's Law of markets...Well, it was called "Say's Law of markets," or, just "the law of markets."rosserjb@jmu.eduhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09300046915843554101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-71197004083695292432014-06-29T22:03:05.260-04:002014-06-29T22:03:05.260-04:00"It should be kept in mind that Say did not b..."It should be kept in mind that Say did not believe in his own law..."<br /><br />There was no such "law" until the 20th century, although the dogmatists certainly treated it as if it was one.Sandwichmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11159060882083015637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-82197974745319959592014-06-29T21:12:29.620-04:002014-06-29T21:12:29.620-04:00It should be kept in mind that Say did not believe...It should be kept in mind that Say did not believe in his own law, at least not all the time. While he wrote defenses of it, picked up by others such as James Mill who named it, in his own writings Say recognized situations where it might not hold, particularly due to hoarding, with him identifying various historical situations where that happened. And when it got down to policy, he supported the use of public works spending to overcome unemployment during the depression of 1817 after the ending of the Napoleonic wars.rosserjb@jmu.eduhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09300046915843554101noreply@blogger.com