Grand unified books thread

[Sheilbh]

No way it's Keynes - he's far too right-wing for that sort of thinking.

I sort of feel it might be someone like Khrushchev - but that's not two Khrushchevian paragraphs

Maybe someone mid NEP?

[Eddie Teach]

Keynes is too old to be talking about Russian capitalism, you would think. 

[Barrister]

I missed all the references to the rouble - yeah author must be Russian.

I change my guess to Stalin.

[Malthus]

I'd guess an early Soviet writer, back when critique of state planing was still possible, say early 1920s.

[Sheilbh]

I change my guess to Stalin.

Having no qualifications but reading two volumes of Kotkin's biography, I don't think it's Stalin. I feel his style was more didactic and sort of punchy - theoretical because Marxist, but more blunt. Edit: And far less inquisitive.

[crazy canuck]

I'd guess an early Soviet writer, back when critique of state planing was still possible, say early 1920s.

Too early I think to be talking about the successes and mistakes. 

[Razgovory]

Someone who is in love with commas.

[FunkMonk]

I'm weak and a coward and Googled it. It was my second guess, so even in my cowardice I only get consolation points. 

[Barrister]

I googled it too.  I had never heard of this person (that says more about me than the author though).

[Habbaku]

Someone who is in love with commas.

You mean some sort of Russian Commanist? Seems likely.

[Habbaku]

I googled it too.  I had never heard of this person (that says more about me than the author though).

You've never heard of [spoiler]Trotsky[/spoiler]? 

[Barrister]

I googled it too.  I had never heard of this person (that says more about me than the author though).

You've never heard of [spoiler]Trotsky[/spoiler]? 

D'oh!  My googling hit this very paragraph being quoted in someone else's book - a dude named Arthur Lewis.  I didn't really read the context though.

Lewis sounds like an interesting character.  Born in 1917 in St Lucia, he winds up going to the LSE (incidentally the first black person to attend), got his PhD, became an expert in development of developing countries, and won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1979.

[The Brain]

[The Minsky Moment]

I'd guess an early Soviet writer, back when critique of state planing was still possible, say early 1920s.

It was a Soviet writer active during that time period, but he took a very different view in the early 20s then he did in this work, written in the 30s about the Five Year Plan.

[crazy canuck]

I'd guess an early Soviet writer, back when critique of state planing was still possible, say early 1920s.

It was a Soviet writer active during that time period, but he took a very different view in the early 20s then he did in this work, written in the 30s about the Five Year Plan.

Ok so there can be only one that fits that description - too bad he had to die...