Re: Say's Law, Walras, Schumpeter, and Keynes

["William B. Ryan" <w_b_ryan@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Gunnar, look, and I think this is quite consistent with your Baumol reference, Say does not in the least require an instantaneous equality between supply and demand, as you seem to think, but does assume a proportionality between the two over time.  It is not contrary to Say that there may in fact be perturbations that transiently break the proportionality, but Say and his successors will assert that these cancel or balance in the long run.  I think that is the point Barkley is making.

In physics there is the "law" of gravity.  But "uniform rectilinear motion" is merely a presumption used in thought experimentation. 

All it takes to invalidate Say as a "law" is to demonstrate that there is normally present some factor that causes supply and demand to diverge (in terms of being curves plotted against time) in the absence of conscious adjustment.

 

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