Foundations of the economic and social history of the United States: Metaphysical

Albers, Scott (2013): Foundations of the economic and social history of the United States: Metaphysical.

Abstract

"Oppositional Analysis" - the name I give to the metaphysics presented in this volume - proposes a number of dichotomies through which one may analyze and understand systematically the structure of every level of reality. Macroeconomic theory, as well as social research, are two excellent stages upon which we may search for clues and insights to the interaction of oppositions. This is so particularly in connection with an analysis of the precepts of the "Austrian School" of macroeconomics as presented by Ludwig von Mises in his well-known and highly influential book Human Action.

Based upon the circuit given for a musical note (see the Apologia and the Introduction to Volume 2, as well as the more extensive treatment herein) and the "Circuit of Being" which will be introduced in this final volume, I propose a model of economics which may correlate with a view of the physical universe of five dimensions as suggested by Theodor Kaluza.

I suggest that these dichotomies may underlie the unity created by Kaluza’s work between General Relativity and Maxwell’s equations for electro-magnetism. If this is so, Oppositional Analysis and the economic and social history of the United States may provide a starting point from which we may learn important insights as to the inner workings of these economic and social oppositions as well oppositions of a more physical nature.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Fifth dimension, Zeno’s Paradox, Russell’s Paradox, Parmenides, consciousness, unemployment, Okun’s Law, real GNP, crisis, prediction, mathematics, economic history, cycle, Kondratiev wave, long wave, Golden Mean, phi, pi, mathematic ratio, octave, music, political economy wave, Great Pyramid, Giza, Khufu, theory of everything, Kaluza, General Theory of Relativity, complexity, Parmenides
• Subjects: A - General Economics and Teaching > A1 - General Economics; A - General Economics and Teaching > A1 - General Economics > A19 - Other; A - General Economics and Teaching > A2 - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics; A - General Economics and Teaching > A2 - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics > A29 - Other; B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B4 - Economic Methodology > B40 - General; B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B4 - Economic Methodology > B41 - Economic Methodology; B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B4 - Economic Methodology > B49 - Other; B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B5 - Current Heterodox Approaches; B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B5 - Current Heterodox Approaches > B50 - General; B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B5 - Current Heterodox Approaches > B59 - Other; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C0 - General; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C0 - General > C00 - General; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C0 - General > C02 - Mathematical Methods; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C4 - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C5 - Econometric Modeling; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C5 - Econometric Modeling > C50 - General; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C5 - Econometric Modeling > C53 - Forecasting and Prediction Methods ; Simulation Methods; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C5 - Econometric Modeling > C54 - Quantitative Policy Modeling; P - Economic Systems > P0 - General; P - Economic Systems > P0 - General > P00 - General; P - Economic Systems > P1 - Capitalist Systems; P - Economic Systems > P2 - Socialist Systems and Transitional Economies; P - Economic Systems > P5 - Comparative Economic Systems; Y - Miscellaneous Categories > Y8 - Related Disciplines > Y80 - Related Disciplines

References

Albers, S. and Andrew Albers, (2011). ‘The Golden Mean, The Arab Spring and a 10-Step Analysis of American Economic History,’ The Middle East Studies Online Journal, August 2011, issue 6, volume 3, pp. 199-253.

Ayres, R. U. (2006). ‘Did the Fifth K-Wave Begin in 1990-92? Has it been Aborted by Globalization?’ Kondratieff Waves, Warfare and World Security / Ed. By T. C. Devezas, Amsterdam: IOS Press, pp. 57-71.

Beard, Charles A. and Mary R. Beard, The Rise of American Civilization, New Edition, The Macmillan Company, New York.

Benner, S. (1875). Benner’s Prophecies of FutureUps and Downs in Prices: What Years to Make Money on Pig Iron, Hogs, Corn and Provisions, Robert Clark and Company, Cincinnati.

Bernanke, B. (2004). “The Great Moderation,” Remarks by Governor Ben S. Bernanke, Eastern Economic Association, Washington D.C., February 20, 2004.

Black, W. (2012). “Prepared Testimony of William K. Black, Associate Professor of Economics and Law, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Before a hearing of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary Entitled: ―Examining Lending Discrimination Practices and Foreclosure Abuses March 7, 2012” http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=fbi%20testimony%20mortgage%20crisis&source=web&cd=10&sqi=2&ved=0CGIQFjAJ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.judiciary.senate.gov%2Fpdf%2F12-3-BlackTestimony.pdf&ei=5LtsT7rZKeOtiQL2tOHOBQ&usg=AFQjCNFBJZUcDmhsiQ3NbwM54fK7OJOpiA

Bloom,A. (1968). The Republic of Plato, Basic Books, Inc., New York, 1968, lines 368c - 369b, p. 45.

Boswell, J. (1820). Life of Samuel Johnson, Vol. 1:218.

Brousseau, A. (1968). “On the Trail of the California Pine,” Fibonacci Quarterly, vol. 6: 69-76;

Brousseau, A. (1971). “Why Fibonacci Sequence for Palm Leaf Spirals?” The Fibonacci Quarterly vol. 9: 227-244.

Brousseau, A. (1971). “Fibonacci System in Aroids,” The Fibonacci Quarterly vol. 9: 253-263.

Chomsky, N. (2011). “ ‘The Great Moderation’ and the International Assault on Labor,” In These Times, May 2, 2011.

Cameron, J. and L. Jones (2002). Emergent Behavior in Gambling Markets Reveals Golden Section Scaling, Academic Open Internet Journal, Vol. 7, http://www.acadjournal.com/2002/v7/part3/p1/

Cleal, Rosamund M. J.; K. E. Walker, and R. Montague (1995). Stonehenge in its landscape: Twentieth century excavations. London: English Heritage.

Coccia, M. (2010). "The Asymmetric path of Economic Long Waves," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Vol. 77, 2010, pp. 730-738.

Cochrane, J. H. (1988). ‘How Big Is The Random Walk In GNP?’ The Journal of Political Economy, Volume 96, Issue 5. 893-920 at 894.

Coldea, R., D. A. Tennant, E. M. Wheeler, E. Wawrzynska, D. Prabhakaran, M. Telling, K. Habicht, P. Smeibidl, K. Kiefer *Quantum Criticality in an Ising Chain: Experimental Evidence for Emergent E8 Symmetry” Article in Science, *DOI: RE1180085/JEC/PHYSICS; press release in "Golden ratio discovered in a quantum world". Eurekalert.org. 2010-01-07. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-01/haog-grd010510.php. Retrieved 2011-10-31

DeSalvo, J. PhD (2008). Decoding the Pyramids, Metro Books, New York.

de Tocqueville, A. (1835, 1840), Democracy in America, Translated by Henry Reeve, (1961), Schocken Books, New York.

DeWolff, S. (1924). “Prosperitats- und Depressionsperioden.” In O. Jenssen, ed., Der Lebendige Marxismus, 13-43, Jena: Thuringer Verlagsanstalt, 1924.

Devezas, T. ( ). "The Longwave phenomenon: Open Questions and New Insights," http://www.unizar.es/sociocybernetics/absg11.html.

Devezas, T., Corredine, J. (2001). The Biological Determinants of long-wave behaviour in socioeconomic growth and development, Technological Forecasting & Social Change 68:1-57.

Devezas, T., George Modelski (2003). Power law behavior and world system evolution: A millennial learning process, Technological Forecsting and Social Change, 70: 819-859.

Devezas, T., George Modelski (2008). “The Portugese as system-builders – Technological innovation in early globalization.” Globalization as Evolutionary Process: Modelling Global Change, Taylor-Francis, 2008:30-57.

Dickson, D. (1983). ‘Technology and Cycles of Boom and Bust.’ Science 219/4587:933-936.

Dunn, C. (1998). The Giza Power Plant, Technologies of Ancient Egypt, Bear and Company Publishing, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Euclid of Alexandria, Elements.

Funk, J M. The 56-Year Cycle in American Business Activity. Ottawa. IL. 1932.

Garraty, J. (1966). The American Nation, A History of the United States, Harper American Heritage Textbook.

Georgescu-Roegen, N. (1977). “Inequality, Limits and Growth from a Bioeconomic Point of View,” Review of Social Economy, XXXV, 3:361.

Goldstein, J. (1988). Long Cycles: Prosperity and War in the Modern Age, Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn.

Goenner, H. (2004). "On the History of Unified Field Theories", Living Rev. Relativity 7, (2004), 2. URL (cited on <date>): http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2004-2.

Gowdy, J. and Susan Mesner (1998). “The Evolution of Georgescu-Roegen’s Bioeconomics,” Review of Social Economy, Volume LVI No. 2, Summer 1998.

Hemenway, P. (2005). Divine Proportion, Phi In Art, Nature and Science, Sterling Publishing Company, New York, NY 10016.

Jourdon, P. (2007). La monnaie unique europeenne et sa relation au developpement economique et social coordonnee: une analyses cliometrique, Tome II, Entelequia, 2010; These, Montpellier, Universite Montpellier I, 2008.

Kahn, H. (1961). On Thermonuclear War, Second Edition with Index, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1961.

Knotek, E. (2007). ‘How Useful Is Okun’s Law?’ Economic Review, Kansas City Federal Reserve, Issue Q IV, pp. 73-103.

Kondratiev, N. D., The Major Economic Cycles (in Russian), Moscow, 1925; translated and published as The Long Wave Cycle by Richardson & Snyder, New York, 1984.

Korotayev, A. V. and Sergey V. Tsirel, (2010). ‘A Spectral Analysis of World GDP Dynamics: Kondratieff Waves, Kuznets Swings, Juglar and Kitchin Cycles in Global Economic Development, and the 2008–2009 Economic Crisis,’ Journal of Structure and Dynamics, Social Dynamics and Complexity, Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Sciences, University of California at Irvine.

Krugman, P. “How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?” New York Times, September 2, 2009.

Lester, T. (2012). “The Other Man,” Smithsonian Magazine, Washington, D.C., February 2012.

Linstone, H. A. (2006). The Information and Molecular Ages: Will K-Waves Persist? Kondratieff Waves, Warfare and World Security / Ed. By T. C. Devezas, Amsterdam: IOS Press. pp. 260-269.

Livio, M. (2002). The Golden Ratio: The Story of the World’s Most Astonishing Number, Broadway Books, New York.

Louca, F. (1999). "Nikolai Kondratiev and the Early Consensus and Dissensions about History and Statistics". History of Political Economicy 31 (1): 169–206. The quoted text is found in an early draft at http://www.users.qwest.net/~drakete/LoucaKondrat_.PDF.

Mandel, E. (1980). Long Waves of Capitalist Development. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Mandelbrot, M. (1984). Omni Magazine, February, p. 107.

Marchetti, C. (1988). ‘Kondratiev Revisited – After One Kondratiev Cycle,’ International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, p. 7.

Marchetti, C. (1980). Society as a Learning System, Discovery, Invention and Innovation Cycles Revisited, Technological Forecasting and Social Change 18:267-282.

Marshall, A. (1920). Principles of Economics, MacMillan and Company, London, 1890, 1920, 8th Edition. von Mayenn, K. (1979). Wolfgang Pauli, Scientific Correspondence, Springer, New York.

McCauley, J. (2009). Dynamics of Markets: The New Financial Economics, 2nd Edition, Cambridge University Press.

McMinn, D. (2006). Market Timing By the Moon & The Sun. Twin Palms Publishing.

McMinn, D. (2007). Market Timing By The Number 56. Twin Palms Publishing.

McMinn, D. (2012). The 9/56 Year Cycle: Earthquakes in Peru, The Phillipines and Selected U.S. States, presently being peer-reviewed in New Concepts in Global Tectonics.

McMinn, D. (September 2011). The 9/56 Year Cycle: Earthquakes in Selected Countries, New Concepts in Global Tectonics, No. 60:9-37.

McMinn, D. (June 2011). The 9/56 Year Cycle: Record Earthquakes, New Concepts in Global Tectonics, 59:88-104.

McMinn, D. (June 2011). The 9/56 Year Cycle: Hurricanes, New Concepts in Global Tectonics, 59:105-111.

McMinn, D. (March 2011). The 9/56 Year Cycle: California Earthquakes, New Concepts in Global Tectonics, 58:33-44.

Michener, W. et al., (2001). “Defining and Unravelling Biocomplexity,” BioScience. December 2001. Vol. 51, No. 12, 1018-1023.

Modelski, G. (2008). Globalization as evolutionary process: modeling global change, Routledge, New York, NY, 2008.

Modelski, T. (1996). Leading Sectors and World Politics: The Coevolution of Global Politics and Economics. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.

Nelson, C. R. and C. I. Plosser (1982). ‘Trends and Random Walks in Macroeconomic Time Series: Some Evidence and Implications,’ Journal of Monetary Economics, 10:139-162.

Nixon, R. (1980). The Real War, Warner Books, New York, N.Y.

Ollman, B. (1976). Alienation: Marx’s Conception of Man in Capitalist Society, Cambridge University Press, 1976. Pais, A. (2000) The Genius of Science, Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 247;

Palmer, R., Joel Colton, (1969). A History Of The Modern World, Alfred A. Knopf Publishers, New York, N. Y., Third Edition.

Perez, J. C. (1991). "Chaos DNA and Neuro-computers: A Golden Link", Speculations in Science and Technology vol. 14 no. 4, ISSN 0155-7785.

Perez, J. C. (September, 2010). "Codon populations in single-stranded whole human genome DNA are fractal and fine-tuned by the Golden Ratio 1.618," Interdisciplinary Sciences: Computational Life Science 2 (3): 228–240. doi:10.1007/s12539-010-0022-0. PMID 20658335

Petersen, A. (1963). Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, September, p. 8.

Petrusevski V. (2006). “The First Excited State of the Hydrogen Atom: A Link or a Mere Coincidence,” Bulletin of the Chemists and Technologists of Macedonia, Vol. 25, No. 1, pp.61-63, May 16, 2006, http://www.mjcce.org.mk/PDF/25_1_132.pdf

Roopun, A., Kramer, M. et al. (2008). "Temporal interactions between cortical rhythms". Frontiers in Neuroscience 2 (2): 145–154. doi:10.3389/neuro.01.034.2008. PMC 2622758. PMID 19225587. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=2622758

Rothbard, M. (1984). ‘The Kondratieff Cycle: Real or Fabricated?’, Investment Insights, August and September, 1984.

Rucker, R. (1983). Infinity And The Mind, The Science And Philosophy Of The Infinite, Bantam Books, December 1983;84-88.

Schumpeter, J. A. (1939). Business Cycles: A Theoretical, Historical, and Statistical Analysis of the Capitalist Process, New York and London: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.

Sethares, W. A. (1992). “Relating Tuning and Timbre,” Experimental Musical Instruments, September 1992.

Shechtman, D., Blech, I., Gratias, D., and Cahn, J.W. (1984) Metallic phase with long-range orientational order and no translational symmetry, Phys. Rev. Lett. 53(20):1951-1954. (original article) Shechtman, D., Technion – Israel Institute of Technology,

Sim, S. (1984). The Joseph Cycle: Will The STI Rise to 4300? josephcycle.com.

Skinner, S. (2006). Sacred Geometry, Sterling Publishing, New York, NY. 10016.

Smith, N. (2011). What I learned in econ grad school, Noahpinion, April 11, 2011. http://noahpinionblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/what-i-learned-in-econ-grad-school.html.

Solomou, S., Phases of economic growth, 1850-1973: Kondratieff waves and Kuznets swings, Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Sowell, F. (1992). ‘Modeling long run behavior with the fractional ARIMA model,’ Journal of Monetary Economics, 29:277-302.

Solow, R. (2010). “Prepared Statement Robert Solow Professor Emeritus, House Committee on Science and Technology Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight “Building a Science of Economics for the Real World” July 20, 2010.” https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:5C-CGuxUTtQJ:www.econ.iastate.edu/classes/econ502/tesfatsion/Solow.StateOfMacro.CongressionalTestimony.July2010.pdf+solow's+testimony+to+congress&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjblF45v6vkDgqhEErzIwSAedLd553F8SbJqG1pEcxsVz25LQ3zvqQ3dM4fasR5m7bGIFAJv2K5pGcM4-zBLqPaSEpdgY0L9cxFll63sXroDzogF7MWrxnD9gVrLV3cng3BYlv-&sig=AHIEtbSHn9Nitpx7zD6OMKCoI-cr73KW-Q

Stewart, H. (1989). Recollecting the Future: A View of Business, Technology and Innovation in the Next 30 Years, Dow Jones-Irwin.

Stiglitz, J. (2011). “Re-Thinking Macroeconomics: What Failed, and How To Repair It?” Journal of the European Economic Association, June 28, 2011, Volume 9, Issue 4, Pages 591-645, August 2011. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1542-4774.2011.01030.x/full

Summers, P. (2005). “What Caused the Great Moderation? Some Cross-Country Evidence”, Economic Review, Third Quarter 2005, page 5-32.

Tausch, A. (2011). ‘On the global political and economic environment of the current Al Jazeera Revolution,’ Middle East Studies On-Line Journal, Issue 5, Volume 2.

Tausch, A. (2006). ‘Global Terrorism and World Political Cycles.’ History and Mathematics: Analyzing and Modeling Global Development / Ed. by L. Grinin, V. C. de Munck, A. Korotayev. Moscow: KomKniga/URSS, pp. 99-126.

Thompson, W. R. (2007). ‘The Kondratieff Wave as Global Social Process,’ World System History, Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems, UNESCO / Ed. by G. Modelski, R. A. Denmark. Oxford: EOLSS Publishers. URL: http://www.eolss.net

Tobin, J. (1983). “Okun, Arthur M.” The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, Vol. 3, pp. 700-701, Macmillan, London.

Tompkins, P. (1971). Secrets of the Great Pyramid, Harper and Row, Publishers, New York.

Van Duijn, J. J. (1983). The Long Wave in Economic Life. Boston, MA: Allen and Unwin.

Van Gelderen, J. (1913). (J. Feder pseudo.) “Springvloed: Beschouwingen over industrieele ontwikkeling en prijsbeweging” (Spring Tides of Industrial Development and Price Movements). De nieuwe tijd 18 (1913).

von Mises, L. (1949) Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, New Haven, Yale University Press.

Wallerstein, I. (1984). Economic Cycles and Socialist Policies. Futures 16/6: 579-585.

Weiss, V. and Weiss, H. (2003). "The golden mean as clock cycle of brain waves". Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 18 (4): 643–652. doi:10.1016/S0960-0779(03)00026-2. http://www.v-weiss.de/chaos.html.

Wilson, E. (1994). Naturalist, Island Press, Washington D. C.

Wilson, E. (1998). Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, Alfred A Knopf, New York.

Williams, D. (1947). Rhythmic Cycles in American Business, Henry George School of Social Sciences. New York. Apr 16, 1947.

Williams, D. (1959). Astro-Economics. Llewellyn Publications Ltd.

Williams, D. (1982). Financial Astrology. American Federation of Astrologers.

Yamagishi, M. and Shimabukuro, Alex I. (2007). "Nucleotide Frequencies in Human Genome and Fibonacci Numbers," Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, ISSN 0092-8240 (print), ISSN 1522-9602 (online).

Yanega, D. “Sex ratio and sex allocation in sweat bees (Hymenoptera: Halictidae), Journal of Kansas Entomology Society, volume 69 Supplement, 1966, pages 98-115.

The Economist, February 1, 1992, pp. 52-53.

Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, Part 1, United States Department of Commerce, Series F 1-5, "Gross National Product" for the United States between the years 1869-1970 according to 1958 prices.

See also the figures for Real GNP, 1947 to present, maintained by the St. Louis Federal Reserve at http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/GNPC96.

American casualty counts during the Vietnam War are kept at the National Archives and may be found at http://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics.html .

House Bill 3995, presented by Representative Kaptur, November 3, 2009, 111th Congress, First Session.

Digest of Education Statistics, Table 99, Public secondary schools, by grade span, average school size and state or jurisdiction: 2007-2008, National Center for Education Statistics; and Enrollment of public secondary schools, by state, 2007-2008, collected at the request of the authors from the NCES on Friday, June 10, 2011.

Additional information regarding the Golden Mean association with quasi-crystals may be found at:

http://materials.technion.ac.il/shechtman.htmlLifshitz, R., Introduction to quasicrystals,

http://www.tau.ac.il/~ronlif/quasicrystals.htmlShechtman, D. (2010) Quasicrystals, a new form of matter,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZRTzOMHQ4sSenechal, M. (2011), Quasicrystals gifts to mathematics,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjao3H4z7-g&feature=relmfu Steuer, D. (2010) Fascinating quasicrystals,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM4AIipGOdkSteinhardt, P. J. What are quasicyrstals”

http://www.physics.princeton.edu/~steinh/QuasiIntro.pptPress release:

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2011/press.html http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Golden_Mean_Wins_Chemistry_Nobel_Prize.php