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I can have some sympathy for Dave, having been victimized by a journalist/editor who clearly didn't understand the issue discussed, and rewrote it out of ignorance. I can imagine trying to skim the pre-print and missing stuff.

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Graeber's few sentences on the History of Apple Computers are clearly wrong. But inconsequential to economics. His more consequential claim is that barter did not precede debt, and that economists claim so to evade inclusion of a comprehensive view of banking (ala MMT) in classical models. That's what I'd like to hear Economists talking about.

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The IBM reference might be about the group that developed the IBM PC outside of the chain of command and that was launched in 1981. But clearly, back in 1980, they did not have laptops - even the Osborne suitcases were not available earlier than 1981. Seriously, did Graeber not have internet access to read about any of the many histories of Apple - but instead relied on a flaky piece of half remembered work?

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