Re: WS Assessment - Kontratyev Dynamic Equilibrium

This individual is merely another case - and there are plenty - of these so-called "experts" on K-wave who have simultaneously failed to carefully read Schumpeter while not acknowledging how much they have borrowed from Schumpeter. Few people understand Schumpeter because they can't be bothered to carefully read, while asking the right questions,  the two volumes of Business Cycles and several of his essays written before the appearance of Business Cycles.  Instead, they rely on Kuznet's review and critique of Business Cycles or subsequent interpretations of Schumpeter (which rely on Kuznet and reproduce his errors) and the result is confusion and imprecision - I can name names but I won't - instead, I'll mention some of the typical errors: confusing invention with innovation, failing to see what is truly significant about innovation, failing to understand what causes the "clustering" of innovations, restricting the meaning of innovation to new material technologies, failing to understand that each K-wave is a "historical individual" or failing to understand what gives K-waves, in Schumpeter's eyes, their cyclical character.  

 

EvB and others were on a list I created several years ago called Long Waves (which has subsequently been suspended with the departure of Don Roper from csf).  The list had an interesting history - first , not much discussion and then what I call "stockmarket types" (I would include EvB here) subscribed and the list really took off.  These people are primarily interested in long waves as a tool for speculation - for, predicting the future behavior of the market etc.  Hence, they tend to ask the wrong questions, become overly involved in quantitative measures to identify trends and make predictions, and even try to "sell" their advice (as I believe EvB does).

 

 

Carl Dassbach