European Tribune - Comments - Adam Smith on Banking

Adam Smith on Banking | 32 comments (32 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Adam Smith on Banking (4.00 / 2)

Smith was amazingly clear sighted, as was John Stuart Mill. When economics came to be a university subject, taught by professors holding endowed chairs, those professors had to be highly selective in what they chose to teach from their works. Else those who had endowed their chairs would become upset. To complicate matters even further, both are very readable.

It has been suggested that the academic economists in the second half of the 19th century introduced mathematical models derived from discarded theories in physics so as to provide their discipline with scientific prestiege. I would suggest that it had another practical purpose: to provide sufficient material to distract their students from reading very deeply into Smith or Mill and coming up with alarming ideas.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Fri Oct 10th, 2008 at 10:15:56 AM EST

Re: Adam Smith on Banking (none / 1)

Add Keynes and you get a triumvirate of very readable English Liberals that don't get read.

A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Oct 10th, 2008 at 10:21:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Adam Smith on Banking (none / 0)

Keynes's Economic Consequences of the Peace was dead-on insightful and compellingly readable. Amazingly, it is all of his I have read. I haven't used calculus since college, dogged out differential equations, but did ace abstract algebra, (Piano's Theorems,etc.) Quality of instruction mattered greatly for me in math. Which of Keynes works would you recommend I read next?

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Fri Oct 10th, 2008 at 12:47:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Adam Smith on Banking (none / 1)

I enjoyed The General Theory. There's no calculus in it, despite (or maybe as a result of) Keynes being a mathematician.

A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Oct 10th, 2008 at 04:53:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Adam Smith on Banking (none / 1)

You Might also enjoy this: A letter to Roosevelt regarding his reconstruction and reform -the start of the new deal. It reveals a slightly different side of Keynes--more of the applied than the theoretical--and has relevance for today--in spades.

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.

by geezer in Paris (risico at wanadoo(flypoop)fr) on Fri Oct 10th, 2008 at 10:22:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Adam Smith on Banking (none / 0)

Wonder what it would cost to really rebuild the railroads, to 21st century standards.

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.

by geezer in Paris (risico at wanadoo(flypoop)fr) on Fri Oct 10th, 2008 at 10:24:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Adam Smith on Banking (none / 0)

Not that much I'd bet. A few hundred billion dollars.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid (arvid.hallen at gmail.com) on Sat Oct 11th, 2008 at 09:04:07 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Adam Smith on Banking (none / 0)

19th century railroads went really everywhere -indeed many have disappeared. Except they may get needed again... That's an infrastructure that would be expensive to rebuild.

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Sat Oct 11th, 2008 at 11:17:38 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Adam Smith on Banking (none / 0)

How expensive per 100 kms? DoDo?

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Sat Oct 11th, 2008 at 11:19:39 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Adam Smith on Banking (none / 0)

Depends where, too. Some trains were built in very mountainous parts of France where a high speed line would be entirely made of tunnels and bridges...

(That's what would be needed for a straight Paris-Barcelona line, for example.)

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Sat Oct 11th, 2008 at 11:39:59 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Adam Smith on Banking (none / 1)

I presume that in the US you could re-lay some of the cross state rail lines much cheaper than in heavily populated Europe which requires a lot of new infrastructure.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Sat Oct 11th, 2008 at 11:53:18 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Adam Smith on Banking (none / 1)

TGV on flatland is very roughly 10 million euros per km. Might be twice as much now that we've had raw material and construction booms, but that'll change with the recession. Which makes this an excellent contracyclical stimulus. Better have all those people laying rails than being unemployed.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid (arvid.hallen at gmail.com) on Sat Oct 11th, 2008 at 12:07:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Adam Smith on Banking (none / 0)

Dodo, where are you when we need your expertise?
For the US, it's a keynsian stimulus that would be less difficult politically to implement than health care creation (only a few thousand truckers would be immediately impacted, and the auto/truck guys could build TGVs under license (after a startup period)--might even impact dying Detroit in a positive way.

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.

by geezer in Paris (risico at wanadoo(flypoop)fr) on Sat Oct 11th, 2008 at 03:25:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Adam Smith on Banking (4.00 / 2)

Lemme give a very rough, but differentiated estimate:

Branchlines: renew/rebuild 140,000 km @ $1.4 million/km = $200 billion
Suburban railroads/rapid transit: build/rebuild 70 networks (all urban areas > 500,000) of an average 200 km (sum: 14,000 km) @ $14 million/km = $200 billion
Mainlines: renew 100,000 km @ $5 million/km = $500 billion
High-speed lines: new construction of 20,000 km @20 million/km = $400 billion

In addition,

Light rail: build/rebuild 150 networks (all urban areas > 200,000) of an average 50 km (sum: 7,500 km) @ $26.7 million/km = $200 billion
Subway/metro: build/renew 70 networks (all urban areas > 500,000) of an average 50 km (sum: 3,500 km) @ $282 million/km = $1 trillion

Altogether $2.5 trillion. Could be significantly less if projects are well-managed (taking lessons from Spain), much more if incompetently and in a very corrupt way. That's a helluva' lot of money, then again, it would not have to be spent in a single year. Compare say an annual $250 billion (assuming a ten-year crash programme) to the annual $600 billion for the military and the one-off $700 billion for bank rescue.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sun Oct 12th, 2008 at 07:32:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Adam Smith on Banking (none / 0)

Is this for electrified?

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Sun Oct 12th, 2008 at 07:46:20 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Adam Smith on Banking (4.00 / 3)

With the exception of branchlines, it was meant to be. But be aware that virtually all six of the per kilometre costs I gave could be both a fifth and five times of what I wrote.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sun Oct 12th, 2008 at 10:35:55 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Adam Smith on Banking (none / 0)

Thanks, Dodo. Helps.
And -yes, those are valid references, but they produce little long-term benefit--certainly no revenue-- unless by some miracle the shitpile suddenly turns into treasure.

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.

by geezer in Paris (risico at wanadoo(flypoop)fr) on Mon Oct 13th, 2008 at 05:19:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Adam Smith on Banking | 32 comments (32 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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