47999639   
   XPost: soc.culture.baltics, soc.culture.czecho-slovak, soc.culture.russian   
   XPost: soc.culture.nordic   
   From: anton.usenet@gmail.com   
      
   David Friedman kirjoitti:   
   > In article ,   
   >  Anton  wrote:   
   >   
   >> David Friedman kirjoitti:   
      
   >>> The issue isn't the barter,   
   >> In James' view it is, or sort of is, since he repeats as a parrot that   
   >> Finns were not getting real money in return.   
      
   > James' point, which seems to have been mistaken, was that they were   
   > getting money in exchange, but overvalued money. If the Soviets had paid   
   > with rubles at the official exchange rate when the market value for the   
   > ruble was (say) half the offical rate, the Finns would have been getting   
   > only half as much purchasing power as the terms of the deal implied.   
      
   > Wasn't that obvious?   
      
   That was his original claim which even he acknowledged was incorrect. He   
   later corrected himself that "what they were getting in exchange sure   
   wasn't real money you can buy a plane ticket with" or something like that.   
      
   >>> it's the terms of the barter--biased, by   
   >>> your accounts, in favor of Finland, apparently the weaker party.   
   >> Is barter based trade attractive to a capitalist market economy? No. How   
   >> do you make it attractive?   
      
   > By offering stuff on terms that make it profitable.   
      
   Touché. That's what the Soviets did.   
      
   > Why would you expect barter to be a problem for a market economy? Money   
   > exchange is more convenient, but if someone wants to offer you ten   
   > million dollars worth of oil in exchange for nine million dollars worth   
   > of machine tools, you can make the deal, sell the oil for money to   
   > someone else, and end up a million dollars ahead.   
      
   That is the nature of Finno-Soviet trade in a nutshell.   
      
   > Why in the world would you expect capitalist firms to be unwilling to   
   > make such deals?   
      
   They weren't ;-) I do not know for sure why only Finland was offered   
   such deals, but as you know there have been various theories preseneted   
   in this trade that make sense. If you want to be 100% sure you'd have to   
   ask the Soviets.   
      
   --   
   Anton   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)