[lbo-talk] GDP per capita/Dougs comments

[Shane Mage]

Exchange-rate based comparisons are totally meaningless,
as anyone can tell by simply considering the change in US
per capita magnitudes, expressed in euros, between November
2000 and May 2004.  PPP comparisons are conceptually
*identical* to single-economy real-terms comparisons over time,
including the discrepancy between magnitudes deflated by
"Paasche" and "Lespeyres" based price indices.  When I took over
editing the economic section of an encyclopedia I found that
for every country in the world national income figures were in
the form of "X's GDP in year Y was Z US dollars."  I switched to
PPP comparisons and the form became "X's GDP in year Y was
(approximately)(roughly)(very roughly) equivalent to Z US dollars."

Shane Mage

"When we read on a printed page the doctrine of Pythagoras that all 
things are made of numbers, it seems mystical, mystifying, even 
downright silly.

When we read on a computer screen the doctrine of Pythagoras that all 
things are made of numbers, it seems self-evidently true."  (N. 
Weiner)