A wonderfully clear explanation of Say's Law

[secondhander]

I stumbled onto this article today. Say's Law is a little difficult to wrap your head around at first, mostly because most people don't understand it themselves and give you a definition that's not quite right. This is the best explanation of it I've found to date. It's very simple, actually. I wanted to share:

 

http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/understanding-says-law-of-markets#axzz2bEeGvME1

Edited August 7, 2013 by secondhander

[softwareNerd]

You might know this already, but some of Say's books are available online. I've read that his "Treatise" was a popular text book at one point in U.S. history.

 

Say's law notes the primacy of production. That's pretty foundational in economics.

 

However, there is a second source of demand: promises to produce (aka credit). I'm not sure whether Say address this.

Edited August 7, 2013 by softwareNerd

[secondhander]

Here also is a good explanation of Say's Law: https://smilingdavesblog.wordpress.com/2012/12/12/smiling-dave-on-says-law/

 

Smiling Dave is seeking to correct the view of Horowitz (the first article I posted), but so far I think they are really in agreement more than disagreement. I haven't finished Smiling Dave's article, but it struck me as a fairly clear explanation as well, so I added the link to it.

Edited August 7, 2013 by secondhander

[Smiling Dave]

Thank you for linking to my article, secondhander.

Indeed, we are in agreement almost to the very end of his article, where he starts talking about "not enough money in the system".