----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- 
     Oh dear, this reswitching thread has taken an 
unfortunate turn.  I am about to disappear entirely 
from all email communications shortly for a few weeks, 
but do feel I need to comment on this.  Will be around 
for a few more days. 
 
     1)  I agree with both Roy Weintraub and Bruce  
Caldwell that it was both unfortunate and somewhat  
confusing of Greg Ransom to use the term "pathology" 
in relation to the discussion of reswitching. 
 
    2)  I agree with Bruce Caldwell that Greg does a 
good job of managing a list that generally operates at 
a reasonably high scholarly level.  What observers should 
be aware of is what happened to the previous austrian list 
that was taken over by fanatics and simply crashed. 
  
    3)  Caution based on that experience (I believe) has 
led Greg to be very cautious about what he allows on the 
hayek list.  When the question about the treatment of Hayek 
in the Reder article in HOPE came up on the list, Greg  
moved to shut the discussion down mostly fairly quickly, 
to the point that some people, myself included, objected to 
his having done so. 
  
    4)  In particular, I agree with Bruce Caldwell that Reder's 
treatment of Hayek is neither reasonable nor fair.  It is not 
at all reasonable to conflate "ambiguity," a case for which 
can be made regarding Hayek, with "anti-Semitism" for 
which no reasonable case has been made at all.  Even the 
article in question noted that a referee objected to the inclusion 
of Hayek in the paper, it being clear that Keynes, and to a 
lesser degree and more complicatedly, Schumpeter, did 
exhibit anti-Semitism at times.  Even as I objected to how 
Greg handled the discussion of the issue on the list, I offered 
to sign a properly worded letter about the matter to HOPE. 
But, if such a letter was sent, I was never shown it nor offered 
any such opportunity. 
 
     5)  One of the things that Greg did not allow to be said 
on the list (except for one message from Peter Boettke, I 
believe), was any defense of any aspect of Reder's article. 
Thus, I thought that Reder's article contained many valid 
and useful and insightful points, even as I thought that it was 
both wrong and unfair about Hayek. 
 
     6)  I am disturbed to hear of threats against the editor(s) 
of HOPE.  I do think that it behooves Roy Weintraub to  
clarify the nature of these threats, now that he has brought 
the issue up.  Such behavior has no place in academic 
or scholarly research or discussions.  It is my personal 
opinion that the person who initially brought 
the issue up on the Hayek list has behaved in a despicable 
and unconscionable manner, although I do not know if he 
was associated with any of these alleged threats.  I shall 
refrain from mentioning his name and will not expand on 
that remark. 
 
     7)  Finally, I find it slightly ironic that Greg would react 
to a discussion of reswitching by somehow considering 
such a discussion to somehow be "pathological."  I recently 
participated in the seminar on the Hayek list run by Roger 
Garrison (and I agree with Bruce Caldwell that the seminars 
have been an especial high point of that list).  There was a 
discussion of reswitching in that seminar, admittedly triggered 
by me, :-) (guilty, guilty!!).  Roger welcomed the discussion. 
One of the points made was that although Hayek did not 
appear to be aware of reswitching per se, he was aware of 
various problems with capital theory associated with the 
existence of heterogeneous capital.  Indeed, I believe that 
Bruce Caldwell has recently written on this very topic, noting 
that Hayek's unwillingness to review Keynes' General Theory 
may have reflected his own absorption in trying to resolve 
the problems for traditional Austrian capital theory that he had 
discovered.  His failure to ultimately resolve them was a 
major factor in his move to a different mode of analysis, 
although I stand to be corrected by Bruce if I am misinterpreting 
or incorrectly summarizing his analysis.  
 
      It is my understanding that Greg actually wanted the 
discussion of the Reder article to occur on this list.  Well,  
now maybe it will. I hope that it can proceed to a reasoanble 
resolution without too much difficulty or incendiary conduct. 
 
Barkley Rosser 
 
 
------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ 
For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]