On Apr 3, 2009, at 1:37 PM, dredmond at efn.org wrote:
> On Fri, April 3, 2009 9:13 am, Shane Mage wrote:
>
>> And why shouldn't the "Golden Age" be compared to the "Bubble Age,"
>> especially since the "real GDP" numbers for the latter period are
>> grossly
>> distorted upwards?
>>
>> Shane Mage
>
> (Sigh). The US government, for all its problems, does an excellent job
> researching and collating major economic data, especially GDP. The
> bloat
> of the FIRE sector pushed reported profits upwards, sure, but the GDP
> accounts aren't artificially boosted by bogus CDOs or derivatives of
> mass
> destruction...
Profits and bogus CDs are not the point. The point is that the FIRE sector is an intermediate sector, not a source of final product. Therefore the "flaw" in bourgeois economics responsible for this distortion produces an exaggerated rate of real GDP growth whenever that sector tends over time to increaser as a proportion of nominal GDP
Shane Mage
> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos