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"There are two things in Sraffa. One of them is very close to Keynes and thats the part that the Sraffians ignore and that is, Sraffa wrote a criticism of Hayeks capital theory book in 1932, and its in that criticism that Sraffa developed this theory of spot and forward markets, and its that theory which Keynes latched onto in his spot-forward market analysis. So theres a very good connection between Sraffa and the spot-forward markets. The other thing which theyve latched onto, what was really anti-Keynesian, is The Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities. It has nothing to do with real world or with economics - its an attack to show that the neoclassical system doesnt work. There are lots of ways of showing that it doesnt work, but basically the way Sraffa shows it doesnt work is by assuming that theres no substitutability between labour and capital. Its a fixed-coefficient system. So what? You know, the old neoclassicists would have said that wages were inflexible. Its the same thing. Real wages are inflexible in the Sraffian system. What does it prove? I dont think it proves anything."
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Piero Sraffa
