The Value to Future Scholars of PKT Archives

[John Gelles <jjgelles@xxxxxxxx>]

	  THE EDITOR'S CONCERNS OVER NOISE ON PKT, AND THE
	VALUE TO CURRENT AND FUTURE SCHLOLARS OF PKT ARCHIVES

	Ric Holt at last has spoken out. But the concerns he
	has, and the problems of an economics list, are at least
	a challenge for a host of our top scholars, not just
	a lone editor -- even with modest help from his friends.

	The end of the Cold War; the end of the promise of
	supply side economics; the beginning of mafia capitalism
	in formerly communist regions; the beginning of global
	capitalism out-of-control -- the Sorros Syndrome; the
	end of welfare as we knew it; the nearer and nearer
	misses of a balanced budget amendment; the Nobel Prize
	to a Keynesian -- but for technical work -- not political
	economy; the promise of China to outproduce and replace
	Japan as America's greatest rival; the race to the
	bottom that is mutilating European welfare statism.
	These few, and all other momentous events of very recent
	years have not been treated in depth in the archives
	of PKT.  And they should have been.

	If PKT is more about econometrics and less about
	"Goals 2000", it has no business admitting anything but
	professionals and amateurs of equal ability. I would
	quit in a minute.

	Yet PKT is not exactly the economics page of any
	of our respected lay periodicals. It does not reach
	the heads of busineses or men in power in government
	or media. It reaches a mandarin audience -- but would
	be a source of sound opinion and information on
	post Keynesian topics that surround these elites and
	those whose lives they influence.

	There is no better discussion group on the internet
	for such topical matter -- and that keeps many
	here living with the noise that one hopes can be
	abated.

	Interstingly, PKT has another profound source of
	difficulty:  It is not just the division between
	academic matters and the great economic issues of
	the day.  There are several fundamentally different
	worldviews contributing to discussion -- including
	the view that capitalism is the problem not the
	solution to anything.  This is, perhaps, inevitable.
	Keynes is Marx to the rabid right.  And Marx is
	Keynes to some of the scholars who see it that way.

	One good thing for any of us who are asked to leave,
	or quit for personal reasons, the value of PKT
	discussions contributed by anyone but yourself,
	relative to what you can read in periodicals and
	books, is low.  If we would raise that value to
	scholars who want to know how we went from where
	we are today to the better world of tomorrow,
	a lot of people on this list will have to try
	harder to write with a vision of those scholars
	and that question in mind.

	Of course, if the world is worse tomorrow, no
	one will be asking such questions -- they will
	know the answers from their own experience.	
	
	I'd love to moderate this list. It would be
	easy: If I didn't underatand it -- I'd send it
	back.  	If I didn't like, I'd do the same.
	What's so bad about a list with only one
	subscriber?

	John Gelles