Controlling the Price Level

Abstract . Governments determine the size of the unit of value just as they determine the length and weight of physical units of measure. What are the different ways that a government can control the size of the unit of value, that is, control the price level? In general, the government designates a resource—gold, paper currency, another country's currency—and defines its unit of value as a particular amount of that resource. An interesting variant, proposed by Irving Fisher in 1913 and implemented more recently in Chile, is to alter the resource content of the unit to stabilize the price level. Another idea is to alter the interest rate paid on reserves in a way that stabilizes the price level. This essay originally appeared as “Controlling the Price Level,”Contributions to Macroeconomics 2(1), Article 5. See http://www.bepress.com/bejm/contributions/vol2/iss1/art5 . Reprinted with kind permission of the Berkeley Electronic Press.     

Re‐reading Castells: Indifference or Irrelevance Twenty Years On?

This essay considers the relevance of The City and the Grassroots to contemporary debates within critical urban analysis. It argues that the book addresses many of the same empirical topics as more recent scholarship, but that shifts in the kinds of questions asked about those topics may make the book seem less relevant to contemporary debates. In particular, Castells’ attempt to abstract from local experience to understand the process of political and social change in something specifically ‘urban’ may be at odds with the goals of contemporary research and of researchers outside Europe, many of whom attempt to provide a differentiated analysis attuned to context and the positionality of agents within social movements. So, while the book makes important contributions to theoretical and empirical arguments because of its deep and rich comparative analysis, intellectual debates and approaches over the past 20 years may have shifted focus.     

Irving Fisher's Spendings (Consumption) Tax in Retrospect

A bstract .   Irving Fisher wrote a significant number of papers towards the end of his career on the design of the U.S. tax system. These writings culminated in a book that he wrote with his brother Herbert in 1942. Fisher thought that the double taxation of saving under an income tax was extremely harmful to the economy and he therefore proposed a "spendings" tax or what he referred to as a "real income" tax. Even though he disliked the terminology, he advocated what today would be referred to as a progressive consumption tax. Fisher's analysis was both theoretical and practical. His 1942 book contained a proposed tax return that implemented his ideas. His analysis is surprisingly modern and relevant today. This paper presents the Fisher proposal and examines the current U.S. tax system in light of his tax views. We argue that Fisher would find that the U.S. tax system lacks intellectual coherence, is economically inefficient, and unnecessarily complex.     

Translating Space: the Politics of Ruins,the Remote and Peripheral Places

This essay surveys recent artistic, literary and philosophical treatments of landscape that use metaphors of ruination, remoteness and the periphery. The discussion primarily focuses on Patrick Keiller's recent works, particularly his film Robinson in Ruins, the account of remote spaces in Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts' book Edgelands, and a collection of essays by Stavros Stavrides on peripheral urban spaces, Towards the City of Thresholds. These treatments of landscape offer an attention to the social significance of spaces overlooked within wider cultural representations of place. It is suggested that all three illustrate the argument that mundane spaces can be read and translated into politicized landscapes offering alternative readings of past events, as well as potential directions for future forms of sociality.     

What have we learned from the Smart Machine?

Zuboff's (1988) book In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power is one of the most celebrated texts among Information Systems researchers. Despite its significant influence, I suggest that it may have a richer story to tell than has been told to date. Motivated by this potential, my essay has two aims: to explicate the theory developed in Zuboff's text, and to determine how fully it has been used and extended by Information Systems researchers, through an analysis of papers citing her text. My findings show that the theory developed in Zuboff's text has been used in a fairly limited and piecemeal fashion. I discuss how this presents a significant opportunity for research because the theory appears to be just as relevant now as it was when the text was published.     

Arthur Farquhar on Economic Delusions: An Examination of the Case for Protection

Arthur Farquhar (1838–1929) was a successful manufacturer and exporter of mechanical steel farming implements who also took the time to participate in the day's free trade versus protectionism debate. His main contribution to the national tariff debate was the 1891 book Economic and Industrial Delusions: A Discussion of the Case for Protection. The book was written as a direct response to the McKinley Tariff of 1890 and is very much a polemic against the tariff by a disappointed former Republican. This article summarizes his economic analysis of the incidence of the tariff, the relationship between trade competitiveness and relative wages, and the tariff's effect on overall economic development.     

Nature in Economic Theories: Hans Immler Traces Recognition of the Environment—and Its Neglect—in Various Classics

Abstract . Labor and capital are usually considered as the primary factors of production, the costs of which are of utmost importance. In contrast, nature (including all natural resources), as the essential third factor, is disregarded. She is generally assumed to be always available, self-regenerating, and to be exploited without long-term costs. In other words, she is more or less viewed as a constant. Hans Immler's new treatise represents an important contribution in that he emphasizes the role and function of the natural environment, and its neglect, in the formulation of theories of value and their long-term consequences on contemporary economic theories and on the person and society. This essay traces Immler's evaluation with extensive quotations—especially with regard to Physiocracy and the classical economists— of nature's role and function, or their neglect, in the formulation of theories of value through the writings of Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas, William Petty, John Locke, Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, and others—all dealt with in Part 1 of his book—and Francois Quesnay and the Physiocrats—the topic of Part 2.     

Hip‐Hop as Urban and Regional Research: Encountering an Insider's Ethnography of City Life

This essay suggests that hip‐hop music may reasonably be thought of as a form of urban and regional research. The essay draws upon a recently published book by hip‐hop artist Jay‐Z, which provides biographical information alongside translations of the lyrical content of his works, to show that hip‐hop is full of insider ethnographic insights into urban life. This, it is argued, can be thought of as an answer to Daryl Martin's call for a more ‘poetic urbanism’, an urbanism that captures the material, sensory and emotional aspects of the city. The essay uses Jay‐Z's text to illustrate the type of insights and ideas that we might obtain from hip‐hop, giving some specific examples of these insights and concluding with some reflections upon this alternative insider account of city life — and how it might provide us with opportunities for expanding our repertoire.     

On the way to Ithaka[1]: Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Publication of Karl E. Weick’s The Social Psychology of Organizing

Karl E. Weick’s The Social Psychology of Organizing has been one of the most influential books in organization studies, providing the theoretical underpinnings of several research programs. Importantly, the book is widely credited with initiating the process turn in the field, leading to the ‘gerundizing’ of management and organization studies: the persistent effort to understand organizational phenomena as ongoing accomplishments. The emphasis of the book on organizing (rather than on organizations) and its links with sensemaking have made it the most influential treatise on organizational epistemology. In this introduction, we review Weick’s magnum opus, underline and assess its key themes, and suggest ways in which several of them may be taken forward.     

Labor and Capital in the Twenty-First Century: Rereading Braverman Today

How has Harry Braverman’s book Labor and Monopoly Capital, published forty years ago, stood the test of time? In this essay I argue that it remains a vital text for understanding the capitalist labor process. But I also address three lacunae in Braverman’s book. First, it overlooked limits to deskilling, such as the challenge of standardizing services; second, Braverman refused to concede that states could provide workers with material welfare, which can protect them from the labor market; and third, Labor and Monopoly Capital’s vision of the future is unnecessarily pessimistic. Standardization and automation can degrade work, but they also generate surplus that can potentially expand human freedom. Braverman’s critical analysis of production begs an equally critical account of exchange and distribution.     

The Organization of European Space: Regions,Networks, and Places

Reviewed in this essay: Ash Amin, Angus Cameron and Ray Hudson Placing the Social Economy London: Routledge Pontus Braunerhjelm, Ricardo Faini, Victor Norman, Frances Ruanences and Paul Seabright Integration and the Regions of Europe: How the Right Policies Can Prevent Polarization Christer Jonsson, Sven Tagil and Gunnar Tornqvist Organizing European Space     

Port Cities

Reviewed in this essay: Han Meyer City and Port: Urban Planning as a Cultural Venture in London, Barcelona, New York, and Rotterdam. Changing Relations between Public Urban Space and Large Scale Infrastructure Richard Marshall (ed.) Waterfronts in Post‐Industrial Cities Raymond W. Gastil Beyond the Edge: New York's New Waterfront     

National Enterprises,National States and Labour Relations after the End of Globalization

Books reviewed in this essay: Edwards, Paul and Tony Elger (eds.) The global economy, national states, and the regulation of labour Waddington, Jeremy (ed.) Globalization and patterns of labour resistance Rugman, Alan The end of globalization     

Critical Urban Theory versus Critical Urban Studies: A Review Debate

Critical urban theory and critical urban studies form the subject of two recent edited collections on approaches to the analysis and transformation of the contemporary capitalist city. In an exchange of commentaries by the respective editors and contributors, the introduction explains the genesis of each book and previews some of the key observations. Peter Marcuse then offers his assessment of Critical Urban Studies: New Directions, which is reciprocated by a commentary on Cities for People, Not for Profit: Critical Urban Theory and the Right to the City by Jonathan Davies, David Imbroscio and Warren Magnusson.     

Comments on John Geanakoplos's "The Ideal Inflation-Indexed Bond and Irving Fisher's Impatience Theory of Interest with Overlapping Generations"

A bstract    A comment on the article by John Geanakoplos in this volume.
It is refreshing to hear an account of Irving Fisher's views on risk and indexation juxtaposed with an account of our modern concerns with the same issues. It is interesting for me to hear this, partly since it shows that many of the issues we worry about today were concerns 70 or more years ago, and thus perhaps that these issues are indeed as deep and fundamental as we now think they are. But I found this history-of-thought presentation most interesting because it clarifies, by starting with simple notions that were on Irving Fisher's mind and moving forward, some of the critical issues concerning the innovations of indexation and Social Security reform.     

Lessons from The Cultural and Political Economy of Recovery

This essay reviews four of the central themes in Emily Chamily‐Wright's The Cultural and Political Economy of Recovery. These themes include: (1) the cultural toolkit, (2) the use of qualitative methods in social science research, (3) polycentricism and disaster recovery, and (4) entrepreneurship in non‐priced environments. Our purpose is twofold. First, to make clear Chamlee‐Wright's contributions to our understanding of disaster recovery. Second, to demonstrate how these themes provide an opportunity for interdisciplinary exchange by blending insights from across the social sciences.     

Social Power and Power Over Space: How the Bourgeoisie Reproduces itself in the City

Urban sociology has long ignored districts of wealth and privilege in cities because they harbor few ‘social problems’ and the class background of sociologists has not inclined them to venture there. In France after 1968, the continued attraction of Marxism and the sulfurous reputation of sociology conspired to make such investigation difficult. Pierre Bourdieu pioneered it with his landmark book on the bourgeoisie, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. This essay reports on two decades of research extending Bourdieu's model of social space to study the territories and strategies of the French high bourgeoisie and aristocracy. The dominant class lives in reserved upscale districts and this seclusion, resulting from the elective spatial aggregation of familial dynasties, is a fundamental characteristic of the group. Segregative isolation is strengthened by specific institutions, such as society balls and social clubs, entrusted with effecting class closure and perpetuation. But, in the greater Paris region, the best districts also attract businesses (corporate headquarters, luxury firms), and thus employment that prompts the established bourgeoisie to migrate westwards in an endless search for social exclusivity. In addition to their Paris homes, upper‐class dynasties possess family properties (a castle or a large manor house) in the provincial hinterland that serve as a basis for paternalistic forms of sociability, linking them to the local lower class via such institutions as riding to hounds. Spaces reserved by and for the high bourgeoisie are major vectors of social reproduction and, along with family and elite schools, help to train heirs suited to safeguarding and valorizing their inherited assets.     

On the Origins of The American Journal of Economics and Sociology: Its Purposes and Objectives

This essay, written with the help of his devoted wife, Mrs. Dorothy Burnham Lissner, was prepared at the request of the current editor of the AJES. This essay was written during the fall of 1999. On September 10, Mrs. Lissner informed me that, “The early history of the Journal is all done. . . . I hope it is satisfactory . . . Will and I worked very hard on it. Long hours. . . . so I decided to interview him and take down what he said or have him answer on tape. Then I put everything together on the computer, almost like an article. He [Will Lissner] has checked it and thinks it's perfect, that we can do no better” (correspendence of D. B. Lissner with L. Moss, 9/10/99). This is the last known writing of Will Lissner and summarizes his aims, goals, and ambitions for this Journal nearly six decades after its founding. Had Will had more time, this essay would have been the first of a series of reflections on this history of this Journal.     

A Neo‐Polanyian Theory of Economic Crises

This article seeks to use Karl Polanyi's book, The Great Transformation, first published in 1944, to understand the global financial crisis that began in 2008. Polanyi's basic premise was that a great crisis must result from powerful causes. He argued that the crisis of the 1930s was a consequence of three distinct processes: deep imbalances in the global trading system, a crisis within the global financial mechanism that was supposed to manage those imbalances, and a failure of adaptation in the world's leading economy, the United States. The same processes can be seen at work in the last decade.