EFTA01137526.pdf

11 V111 11L11 y 1115 , 11141 L11%. A1.L GLAWAlb 6V 1...L1Se 1aaVva ••.......••••••••,... Allb 111 • 1.711.F116. 11CALIll economy of near zero marginal cost and the prospect of nearly free goods and services. This catch-22 is the inherent contradiction that underlies capitalist theory and practice. Eighty years after Lange and Keynes made their observations, con- temporary economists are once again peering into the contradictory work- ings of the cap ital ist sys tem , uns ure of how to ma ke the ma rke t eco nom y function wit hou t sel f-d est ruc ting in the wa ke of new tec hno log ies tha t are speeding society into a near zero marginal cost . Lawren ce Sum me rs, U.S . sec reta ry of the tre asu ry dur ing Pre sid ent Bill Clinton's adm ini stra tio n and for me r pre sid ent of Ha rva rd Un ive rsit y, and J. Bradford DeLong, a pro fes sor of eco nom ics at the Un ive rsit y of Ca l- ifornia, Berkeley, rev isit ed the cap ital ist dile mm a in a join t pap er del ive red at the Federal Reserve Ban k of Ka nsa s Cit y's sym pos ium , "Ec ono mic Pol - icy for the Information Eco nom y," in Au gus t 200 1. Th is tim e, the re wa s much more at stake as the new inf orm atio n tec hno log ies and the inc ipie nt Internet communic atio n rev olu tion we re thr eat eni ng to tak e the cap ital ist system to a near zero ma rgi nal cos t rea lity in the com ing dec ade s. EFTA01137526