Date: Thu, 24 Jul 1997 01:53:32 -0800
From: djones-AT-uclink.berkeley.edu (rakesh bhandari)
Subject: Re: M-TH: Re: Info Revolution


Going through the messages in reverse order, I did not see Chris Bs and
Matt Ds posts on the value produced by information workers. Chris has led
me to think about the role of demand in the determination of value.

Just a few reading notes:

 Given all the currency turmoil in Southeast Asia, I was reminded that I
need to really think through Carchedi's analysis of the determination of
exchange rates in his Frontiers of Political Economy. The book was
published in 1991, the Mexican peso dropped 50% in 1994, and we seem now on
the brink of major turmoil in Thailand, Phillipines, Indonesia, Malaysia
(perhaps in part due to competitive pressures put on these nations by
China). It would seem that Carchedi's successful effort to emphasize
devaluations in the dominated countries as a fundamental aspect of a
technologically dynamic world capitalist system  indicates the superior
basis provided by value theory for the scientific understanding of real
world economics.

I also need to get clear about the imperialist advantages derived from the
dollar as reserve currency. There was a sharp letter to the WSJ from Hugo
Salinas Price of P edregal, Mexico: "...the US does not pay--with exported
goods--for an important part of its imports. It simply gives the exporters
dollars, which are irredeemable promises to pay--in more dollars. The
exporting countries then use these dollars, their reserve assets, to buy US
bonds. Thus, those poor 'mercantalist' countries are obliged to finance the
great and powerful US. The total, at last reckoning, is $643 billion in the
hands of foreign central banks. These forced purchases of bonds have helped
lower US interest rates..." 6/18/97

rb





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