Atrios writes:
Eschaton: For anyone who's in the mood for a bit of long reading, this paper by DeLong and Eichengreen is an excellent overview of the Marshall Plan.
It is one of the best things I've ever written. But the real kudos go to Paul Hoffman, Dean Acheson, George Marshall, Harry Truman, and company. We certainly do not see their like today.
Posted by DeLong at June 7, 2004 09:59 AM | TrackBack | | Other weblogs commenting on this postA thoughtful and interesting paper, and one which I hope can be reconsidered next year.
Question: aren't high oil prices to a certain extent Russia's marshall plan? i know absolutely nothing about the Russian internal economy. but it would seem to me that the windfall profits to the State from high oil prices could (are?) providing the cash necessary to cover enough of the gap between what is expected in the safety net and what the State could otherwise afford. If there is that coverage, then the next interesting question is whether Putin is using his political authoritarianism to move toward market liberalism. the occasional article i read about Russia suggests that this is indeed the case, as the tax base is getting wider and collections more consistent.
cheers
Francis
Posted by: FDL on June 7, 2004 06:12 PMI note, however, how easy it might be to tell this same story with an far less pro-market slant. Were it not for the memory of the Depression, were it not for the militant labour unions and the Communists, were it not for the sacrifices of the existing regime of rations and state-controlled allocation, the nations of western Europe might well have scrapped all forms of income distribution and applied the kinds of market-oriented liquidationist policies that made the Depression so very harsh. If they had not felt such intense pressure to moderate losses to the urban working class despite the pro-market stance of the Marshall administrators, wages might have shrunk very sharply in the post-war years, and before long consumption and growth would have followed. The Marshall Plan might well have been remembered with the same feeling that people from developing nations have towards "structural adjustment."
An important method in contrafactual history is to look to see if the incomplete application of a policy - if not its out and out failures - accounts in significant measure for its success. A Marshall Plan that was more successful in implementing market policies might have been an unmitigated disaster. A less complete transition to markets in eastern Europe might also have been more effective in raising living standards and promoting poltical stablity.
Posted by: Scott Martens on June 9, 2004 05:06 AMQuieta non movere - Not to move (things lying) quiet
Rem tene, verba sequentur - Keep to the subject and the words will follow. (Cato Senior)
Nihil est incertius volgo - Nothing is more uncertain than the (favour of the) crowd. (Cicero)
Non ut edam vivo, sed vivam edo - I do not live to eat, but eat to live. (Quintilianus)
Illiud Latine dici non potest - You can't say that in Latin