[PEN-L:8195] Re: Re: information revolution?

[Brad De Long <delong@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>>Lawrence Summers [or his ghostwriter] minimizes this stuff in the passage
>>exerpted by Doug. But it's been several years, so maybe the "inforev" is
>>kicking in?

I don't think so... That's Lant Pritchett in his
anti-conventional-wisdom-rant mode. He is quite eloquent--and he certainly
can make one think. But it has little relationship to what Summers believes
(and, probably, little relationship to what Pritchett believes).

>
>Are they using "real" growth here? Given the big drop in hardware prices,
>small nominal growth can turn into giant real growth when deflated (or, in
>this case, inflated).
>
>Doug

They are real numbers. But they are (or are supposed to be) chained to
minimize this problem.

Brad DeLong


-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
"Now 'in the long run' this [way of summarizing the quantity theory of
money] is probably true.... But this long run is a misleading guide to
current affairs. **In the long run** we are all dead.  Economists set
themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can
only tell us that when the storm is long past the ocean is flat again."

--J.M. Keynes
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
J. Bradford De Long; Professor of Economics, U.C. Berkeley;
Co-Editor, Journal of Economic Perspectives.
Dept. of Economics, U.C. Berkeley, #3880
Berkeley, CA 94720-3880
(510) 643-4027; (925) 283-2709 phones
(510) 642-6615; (925) 283-3897 faxes
http://econ161.berkeley.edu/
<delong@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>