> Do any of the the money measurements: M 1, M 2, and so on tell a
> person the amount of use values (good and services) produced in any
> given time frame?
No. That's roughly what GDP is - the total value of goods and services produced within a nation during a year (or quarter, typically expressed at an annual rate). I say roughly because it includes some things, like missiles and jail construction, you might not think of as a use value, and excludes household-produced items and depreciation of the natural environment.
Doug *********************************************
Cheers Doug! Am I right in assuming that the GDP measures goods and services which have been sold, which are found to be use values within the context of capitalist class domination e.g. the $8 billion a month being spent on the occupation of Iraq?
Oh and as for Friedman and friend of mine kind of summed up the matters which his kind of political economy made useful:
Milton Friedman leaves a legacy of free-market policies that whipped inflation, beat the Soviet Union, liberated Chile , brought capitalism to Poland , and set free the markets for everything from labor to saving and loans. Oops did I mention the dreaded S&L crisis?
First, inflation. Monetarist policies tamed inflation, the claim goes. How about the 30+ year stagnation of real wages, while productivity nearly tripled? The dreaded wage-price spiral was ended by massive government interference that included putting PATCO union officials in jail. Reagan’s Dept. of Labor was the most business friendly in history, until W’s.
Beating the Soviet Union . These guys talk like they beat Notre Dame. Internal economic contradictions beat their economy, not a phony arms race with the U.S. It was the U.S. that spent itself into the toilet, and again, that would be massive state interference, right? Let’s not to mention starting the mess in Afghanistan and the invasion of numerous countries—state interference at the most primitive level.
Liberated Chile and privatized their social security? Murdered Chilean labor leaders and busted unions? These guys actually brag about that. Like Afghanistan , the blowback from that bullshit continues, except that it’s in the form of populist elected officials all to eager to realign with China . Again, massive state interference in establishing a fascist state under Pinochet.
Eastern Europe no longer has the Soviet Union hanging around, but since the liberation kleptocracies have ruled from the Balkans to the Baltic. Many people have lost everything, pensions, healthcare, jobs, but at least they have capitalism, as their former states de-interfere with the economy by letting entrepreneurs walk off with everything in sight.
Deregulation has made the nearly $1 trillion (2006 dollars) S&L crisis commonplace. Utilities like PG&E in Calif. have gone bankrupt, transferred $11 billion to their parent company in Delaware , also named PG&E, and stuck ratepayers with massive losses. Enron—allowed to deliberately shut off power to Calif. in order to drive up prices, as legal as the Vatican , if you please. End state interference in the FAA, EPA, OSHA, FDA, whatever, by appointing corporate shills to run the agencies.
Best,
Mike B)
Watch the communist manifestoon! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1oGIffyVVk
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