Re: General Thery seminar

["J. Barkley Rosser, Jr." <rosserjb@xxxxxxx>]

Paul,
     I fully agree.  But, I think what has been the problem
has been your apparent unwillingness to see any
difference in behavior between fundamentalists and
chartists.  Henry does not either, in the long run, when
we are all dead, :-).
      But, to remind that this is still the GT seminar, I
challenge you to show that Keynes did not accept that
there was a difference in the behavior of fundamentalists
and chartists (or "British" and "Americans" to use his
terminology of at least one point in Chap. 12 of the GT)
and that such a difference makes a difference, a big
difference, in how markets behave.
      I have given some evidence to support the idea that
Keynes did think there was such a difference and that it
is important.  I think Ted Winslow's post also showed
pretty strong support from some other sources for the idea
that Keynes saw a difference and thought that it made a
difference.
       Again, just showing that fundamentalists are "living
on dreams" or beauty shows or whatever, does not show
that they behave similarly to chartists in ways that are
significant for markets, such as their stability (especially).
Barkley Rosser
Professor of Economics
James Madison University
Harrisonburg, VA 22807 USA
http://cob.jmu.edu/rosserjb

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Davidson <pdavidson@xxxxxxx>
To: POST-KEYNESIAN THOUGHT <pkt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Saturday, January 29, 2000 6:48 PM
Subject: Re: General Thery seminar


>At 05:22 PM 01/28/2000 -0500, Barkley wrote:
>>      I make no claims about the value of "information" or what it
>>is even.  I certainly do not claim that it arrives in an ergodic
>>process either.  In fact, I don't think it does.  But, "news" arrives
>>that alters perceptions by those who are paying attention of the
>>future earnings prospects of enterprises.
>
>
>Now we are getting somewhere. News is anything that stirs "changes" in  the
>imagination.
>
>Sure -- then there is nothing fundamental about fundamentals
>changing  except the perceiver perceives that it is fundamental to the
>pricing (market valuation) of the investment.  And, following the Warren
>Buffet philosophy that you espoused earlier, the perceiver will not sell
>his investment that he is holding on the basis of fundamentals UNLESS the
>market price rises too rapidly -- and therefore makes it profitable to sell
>now rather than hold for the long term.
>
>Aha! Fundamentals and intrinsic values are like beauty -- in the eyes of
>the beholder.
>
>Paul
>Paul Davidson
>Holly Chair of Excellence in Political Economy
>Editor, JOURNAL OF POST KEYNESIAN ECONOMICS [JPKE]
>Economics Department -- 523 SMC
>University of Tennessee
>Knoxville, Tennessee 37996-0550
>email: Pdavidson@xxxxxxx;   phone: (865)974-4221;    fax: (865) 974-4601
>http://econ.bus.utk.edu/Davidson.html
>
>