RE: pop quiz time

["Forstater, Mathew" <ForstaterM@xxxxxxxx>]

Hicks?

-----Original Message-----
From: Ian Murray [mailto:seamus2001@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, May 10, 2002 4:00 PM
To: pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: [PEN-L:25863] pop quiz time

[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."