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Response to Comments: /Econ_Articles/Reviews/lindsey_puppet.html

from Geoff McCaffrey (macscot@pathcom.com)
just stumbled on to your terrific site - a great help to all of us amateur economists struggling to understand the drift of a global economy that at times these past five or six years has seemed on the verge of collapse. A few comments, if I may. 1. Would you not say that your statement: 'One international financial disaster every 2 years is a lot' is something of an understatement? I would have said it was disaster - it's certainly a disaster for those millions of people living through them. 2. I'd apreciate your comments on my reading of things to date. I'm an anti-globalist: I see it as a variation on 18th cent. imperialism - then it was Britain (my native land) now it's America, only this time I think there's a good chance it will bring about complete economic collapse. I do not see any extensive period of global economic equilibrium being achievable without massive and intrusive management by external agencies such as the WTO, IMF, World Bank, etc. on things such as trade and capital flows, global interest and exchange rates, etc. Since it's impossible to achieve any effective level of precision in these areas without intruding on the economic sovereignty of many countries, and since you couldn't get everyone to obey them anyway, I think we will stagger from crisis to crisis, or worse, because policymakers seem bent on crafting some sort of ersatz system on what is at bottom little more than the international commercial business strategies of a few hundred transnational corporations. Further cause for worry is the notion that Western policymakers are attempting to 'design' the economic structures of other countries is an act of intellectual hubris that one fears will end badly. No one can 'see' enough of the variables, let alone manage them. While we're looking at Mexico, or Russia or wherever, there's another Longterm Capital Mgmt. waiting in the shadows right on our own doorstep, with the right combination of avarice and recklessness to bring the whole thing clattering down. Large statements, I agree, but I'd be interested in your comments.

Geoff McCaffrey Aurora, Ontari Contributed by Geoff McCaffrey (macscot@pathcom.com) on July 21, 1999

(posted 8729 days ago)

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