If you want to learn about Kondratieff cycles, Robert Samuelson’s latest column in the Washington Post has more about them than you’ll ever want to know. Better yet, look them up in Wikipedia. The explanation there is better. Mr. Samuelson deploys Kondratieff’s “long waves” in a sort of “Hail Mary” to save capitalism which is simultaneously unnecessary and insufficient.
There are three sources of dissatisfaction with a free market capitalistic system:
- It does not produce equitable results.
- It has been corrupted.
- Rent-seeking
The first source is the rationale that is usually deployed in criticism of the system while the third source is the reason that greater vigilance needs to be exercised in preventing the second.
It still remains true that the only available alternatives are markets, a command economy (of which the defects are well known and they’re worse than capitalism’s), or markets mediated by regulating with a light touch to make the system more equitable while avoiding rent-seeking and corruption. That is extremely difficult in a country with as little social cohesion as ours which appears to be decreasing every day.
Eternal vigilance, etc.
As true as true can be
Oh, and good luck today
Pretty much agree. I see it more as a continuum from command to completely market driven and we argue about where on that continuum we ought to function. In general, market solutions are better, when we can take them work.
Steve
Or a Good King.
Happy 74th and Long Live The King.