Quote to better understand Productivity
“Stressing output is the key to improving productivity, while looking to increase activity can result in just the opposite.”
Paul Gauguin
Policy seeks to increase activity in spite of weak effective demand for output. So is it any surprise that zero-lower-bound monetary policy has not normalized the economy?
If only economists would understand Effective Demand as a limit upon utilization of labor and capital… then they would understand stagnant productivity.
Gauguin? The French artist who died in 1903? That is the best you can do to support your theory of how the modern global economy works? You kidding?
A bit on EL’s mentor:
Reduced to begging, he often went without food for days, endured violent rheumatic pains in his shoulder, and was plagued by severe colds. On Martinique, in the West Indies, he was beset by dysentery, stomach cramps, and a liver ailment. In 1891, in Tahiti,he took ill and spat up large quantities of blood. Allegedly due to an excessive use of tobacco and overindulgence in sex, his eyes dimmed and he perceived his vivid splashes of color on canvas as quite dull. In a brawl in 1894, he broke his ankle, and limped for the rest of his life. A year later, he contracted syphilis from a prostitute. Back in Tahiti, he was plagued by eczema and conjunctivitis and was again spitting blood. His illnesses, complicated by painful treatments for syphilis and severe bouts of depression, led him to attempt suicide in 1898 by swallowing arsenic. After poisoning himself, he managed to drag himself back to his bed, where he expected to die. Instead, he lay helpless and in great pain for months and eventually recovered.
Thank you bk… you have taken a simple quote and made it into a dramatic movie. I like it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Edward:
I know the story of Gauguin too. Consider the source.
Run,
The idea is brilliant and insightful. The debauchery cannot change the truth. A person of debauchery can realize the truth.
And his paintings sell for hundreds of millions of dollars. He himself was a productive painter.
The guy painted at least 789 paintings.
http://www.paul-gauguin.net/the-complete-works.html
Anyone who can paint that many paintings knows something about productivity. He was a stockbroker. He painted for 30 years. That is 26 per year, 2 per month. The guy knows something about being productive.
I liked his South Seas life and read much about him. Almost bought a small Pissarro one time. Their apths had crossed.
And they seem to forget that demand is irrelevant unless there is money to make it happen.
This is all non sense talk about looking further back in time to see who came first, the chicken or the egg. Let me see if I look back further I think I will find the answer…From what I have read it was made clear to me that worker productivity has not fallen or gone flat but demand has. This is due in large part because corporations have not invested back into American jobs-economy but rather were busy off shoring for low labor then shipping cheaper made products back into our country duty free. They called this “free trade ” which was only one way trade.. This dynamic of low investment at home has forced a much lower effective demand limit as corporations continue to not invest in capital at home but rather do massive stock buy backs. Now even their profits margins are declining so the Fed cannot raise the rate in a 1.2% growth GDP economy…How’s that workin for ya? HRC cannot and will not fix this when she has been paid dearly to do nothing about it. But she will lie to all and anyone about it…
some one tell me how people who don’t have money can create “demand.”
if you can’t afford to buy anything, no matter how good or cheap or whatever, the product will stay on the shelf. until people have living wages, the hope of earning enough money to buy “things”, how pray tell, can anyone imagine there will ever be “demand.”
welcome to Communism. the Elites tell us how and when and what to buy, they just don’t give us money for our labor to buy those “things” they want to “profit” off of.
without money, all that product will just sit there, the economy will “tank” and we will hear endless “cries” about how bad it really is for Business.
it takes two to tango, and buy things
Bernard: You ask:
tell me how people
who don’t have money
can create “demand.”
Easy answer. It’s called debt.
Between student loans, credit cards, mortgages and auto loans Americans are in hock for $15 Trillion. That is a lot of buying power.