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A defining moment during the vacation was reading "A Beautiful Mind", and more importantly, "The Metaphysical Club" by Louis Menand. Together, these books have ignited some thought which should sustain me, and your willing readership for some time. Also, I'm now in the midst of Peter G Brown's "The Commonwealth of Life", from Black Rose Books. Our excursion will be through a new view of economics, or value. If you stay with me, we'll do this in time, as my economics training is limited to one undergraduate course, Samuelson no less, but a long time ago. I've already cooresponded with a few practitioners in the field: a cousin completing his PhD in economics, a bankruptcy judge, a Wall St economist friend from college, and a brother in banking. To this point, these people are steering my reading list, and I'll share that with you as we go.

What we'll be doing here is to shape a new view of the capital transaction. I've a sense, sharpened by recent Wall St, stock market trading revalations, our means of settling on value is skewed. We praise ourself about efficient markets, yet allow trades to happen with other than full information on both sides. One of the things my view of the transaction hopes to do is factor out, to a large extent, any special knowledge. In this piece, I'll simply introduce my notion, as a baited hook. I'll share my communications to date as we go, and as ever, you are free to comment on what you see here.

The new capital transaction places value on the future worth of a good. Today, the routine capital transaction is settled at a point in time (usually on a day, often at a particular moment) and for a fixed price. The new system proposed here allows both parties to a transaction to retain an interest in the future value of a good. I saw an ad last week which is a too-rare example of this in practice: "If you buy a digital TV from us, we'll give you 110% of the difference of any lower advertised offer for the next 30 days." This example is one part of the new model. The other is that the purchaser may owe the seller some amount of money at a later date as well. For consumer goods which depreciate, this later is an unlikely outcome, but to make the trade an even one, the potential for future compensation should be reciprocal.

This tome is going to work on long-range, and constructive values if we wish to assert continued moral leadership.

One of the links below points to retrospective on the 50th anniversary of his death.

COMMEMORATION OF IRVING FISHER

COMMEMORATION IRVING FISHER ifcommittee economy

Economic Theory

Economic Theory bized

Economist

Economist Finance

Fisher Conference

Fisher Conference cowles econ yale economy

Fisher's Theory of Investment

Fisher Theory Investment cepa newschool economy

Fisher, Irving (1867-1947)

Fisher Irving 1867-1947 carleton economy

Glossary

Glossary bized economic

Irving Fisher

Irving Fisher library yale economy

Irving Fisher

economy capital

Irving Fisher and the Cowles Foundation

Irving Fisher Cowles Foundation econ yale economics

McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought

McMaster University Archive History Economic Thought socsci

The Stock Market Crash of 1929: Irving Fisher Was Right!

Stock Market Crash 1929 Irving Fisher Was Right papers nber economy