Dennis Claxton wrote:
>
> At 01:36 PM 4/15/2009, Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> >By the way, anyone know where this quote in the Laibach email comes
> >from?
>
> This is it's second recent appearance on lbotalk. It was quoted in
> an FT article posted last month:
>
> <http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f8e0b1be-0ddc-11de-8ea3-0000779fd2ac.html>http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f8e0b1be-0ddc-11de-8ea3-0000779fd2ac.html
>
> By Amartya Sen
>
> Published: March 11 2009 02:00
>
> Exactly 90 years ago, in March 1919, faced with another economic
> crisis, Vladimir Lenin discussed the dire straits of contemporary
> capitalism. He was, however, unwilling to write an epitaph: "To
> believe that there is no way out of the present crisis for capitalism
> is an error."
Lenin here denies the certainty of an empirical prediction; he does not, however, make the error of countering that prediction with one of his own, "There _is_ a way out." Empirical predictions tend to ignore the operations of contingency in human affairs. That's one reason the more careful economic pundits always hedge their arguments.
Carrol