Economics 708: Political Economy I
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The Compatibility of Marxian and Keynesian Economics: a Critical Assessment of Two Interpretations of Marx
NSER 5(1)—Articles The Compatibility of Marxian and Keynesian Economics: A Critical Assessment of Two Interpretations of Marx By Christian Schoder* This paper contrasts two converse interpretations of Marx which are assessed regarding their compatibility with Keynesian concepts of effective demand, independent investment and endogenous money. On the one hand, the orthodox interpretation abstracts from money and assumes the validity of Say's law. Effective demand does not play a role. It is drawn from Marx's treatment of the general law of capitalist accumulation and the law of the tendency for the rate of profit to fall. On the other hand, the monetary interpretation highly regards of demand, investment and money. Money is the trigger of a general glut as it allows for the separation of purchase and sale as a means of circulation. As a means of payment, money implies its endogenous creation through lending. It is laid out in Marx's treatment of the reproduction and circulation of the aggregate social capital, his analysis of money and credit and his rejection of Say's law. * New School for Social Research. 6 East 16 Street, New York, NY 10003 (e-mail: [email protected]). 17 The Compatibility of Marxian and Keynesian Economics 1. Introduction Various methodological, epistemological and theoretical discrepancies among the variety of schools of thought offer pluralism, but impede the emergence of a common research program (cf. Harvey and Garnett 2008). Hence, there have been several endeavors aimed at integrating Marxian and Keynesian approaches by trying to find shared principles and overcome disparities.i This paper seeks to contribute to this integration process of Marxian and Keynesian ideas. -
Use-Value, Exchange Value, and the Demise of Marx's Labor Theory of Value
USE-VALUE, EXCHANGE VALUE, AND THE DEMISE OF MARX'S LABOR THEORY OF VALUE BY STEVE KEEN I. INTRODUCTION Karl Marx was the greatest champion of the labor theory of value. The logical problems of this theory have, however, split scholars of Marx into two factions: those who regard it as an indivisible compo- nent of Marxism, and those who wish to continue the spirit of analysis begun by Marx without the labor theory of value. In the debate be- tween these two camps, the former has attempted to draw support from Marx's concepts of value, while the latter has ignored them, taking instead as their starting point the truism that production gener- ates a surplus. Nevertheless, a careful examination of the development of Marx's logic uncovers the profound irony that, after a chance re- reading of Hegel, Marx made a crucial advance which should have led him to replace the labor theory of value with the theory that commodi- ties in general are the source of surplus. Marx's value analysis is thus consistent, not with those who would defend the labor theory of value, but with those who would transcend it. Marx did not properly apply this analysis to non-labor inputs, while the cornerstone of Capital was his correct application of the same analysis to labor. This unjustified asymmetrical treatment of the labor and non-labor inputs to production is therefore the actual and unsound foundation of Marx's labor theory of value. Once that treatment has been corrected, the labor theory of value collapses. -
Streeten's Major Writings Paul Marlor SWEEZY
.... 642 Paul Marlor SWEEZY Paul Marlor SWEEZY 643 I out agreeing with the late David McCord Wright, who once said, 'When It was under these circumstances that acquired a mission in life, not all at once and self-consciously, but gradually and through a practice that had a logic of its people tell me I am fuzzy, I reply, "life is fuzzy'", the heterodox dis�enters own. That mission was to do what I could to make Marxism an integral and prefer, I think, to be accused of fuzziness. They prefer to be vaguely nght to respected part of the intellectual life of the country, or, put in other terms, to take being precisely wrong. It is a matter of taste. The orthodox may say, part in establishing a serious and authentic North American brand of Marxism. 'Reductionism is not the occupational disease of economists, it is their occu pation.' But if in the process they throw out the baby instead of the bathwater, In pursuing these interests at Harvard, Sweezy received encouragement the reduction surely loses its point. from the great conservative economist Joseph Schumpeter, whose analysis of the origins, development and impending decline of capitalism revealed a Streeten's Major Writings complex and critical appreciation of Marxist analysis. 17 (1949), 'The Theory of Profit', The Manchester School, (3), September. Obtaining his Ph.D. in 1937, Sweezy took a job as an instructor at Harvard (1950a), 'Mangel des Preismechanismus', Vo//beschdftigung, Cologne: Bundverlag. (l 950b), 'The Inappropriateness of Simple "Elasticity" Concepts m the Analysis of Interna until 1939 when he rose to the rank of assistant professor. -
The Transformation Problem As a Problem of Fetishism
Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2019 The Transformation Problem as a Problem of Fetishism Lange, Elena L Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-184016 Journal Article Published Version Originally published at: Lange, Elena L (2019). The Transformation Problem as a Problem of Fetishism. Filosofski Vestnik, 40(3):51-70. Filozofski vestnik | Volume XL | Number 3 | 2019 | xx–xx Elena Louisa Lange* The Transformation Problem as a Problem of Fetishism ‘The further we trace out the valorization process of capi- tal, the more is the capital relationship mystified and the less are the secrets of its internal organization laid bare.’ Karl Marx1 Introduction: Marx’s Fetishism-Critical Method In the international research of Marx’s Critique of Political Economy of the past decades, it has become fashionable to perform the Bob Dylanesque2 song of “The Rejection of the Labour Theory of Value”, a kind of spoken-word blues with lots of minor chords. The chorus goes like this: “The labour theory of val- ue/ it’s just a residue of the classics”3. The verses tell the story of a “substan- tialist”, “embodied” labour theory of value held by poor forlorn Marx, against his better judgment. The “message” is that we, and our interpretation of Marx, 1 Karl Marx, Capital. A Critique of Political Economy. Volume 3. Penguin, London 1981, p. 139. 2 I apologise to all Marxist Bob Dylan-fans, should they exist. -
Post-Keynesian Economics
History and Methods of Post- Keynesian Macroeconomics Marc Lavoie University of Ottawa Outline • 1A. We set post-Keynesian economics within a set of multiple heterodox schools of thought, in opposition to mainstream schools. • 1B. We identify the main features (presuppositions) of heterodoxy, contrasting them to those of orthodoxy. • 2. We go over a brief history of post-Keynesian economics, in particular its founding institutional moments. • 3. We identify the additional features that characterize post- Keynesian economics relative to closely-related heterodox schools. • 4. We delineate the various streams of post-Keynesian economics: Fundamentalism, Kaleckian, Kaldorian, Sraffian, Institutionalist. • 5. We discuss the evolution of post-Keynesian economics, and some of its important works over the last 40 years. • 6. We mention some of the debates that have rocked post- Keynesian economics. PART I Heterodox schools Heterodox vs Orthodox economics •NON-ORTHODOX • ORTHODOX PARADIGM PARADIGM • DOMINANT PARADIGM • HETERODOX PARADIGM • THE MAINSTREAM • POST-CLASSICAL PARADIGM • NEOCLASSICAL ECONOMICS • RADICAL POLITICAL ECONOMY • REVIVAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY Macro- economics Heterodox Neoclassical authors KEYNES school Cambridge Old Marxists Monetarists Keynesians Keynesians Radicals French Post- New New Regulation Keynesians Keynesians Classicals School Orthodox vs Heterodox economics • Post-Keynesian economics is one of many different heterodox schools of economics. • Heterodox economists are dissenters in economics. • Dissent is a broader -
Che Guevara's Final Verdict on the Soviet Economy
SOCIALIST VOICE / JUNE 2008 / 1 Contents 249. Che Guevara’s Final Verdict on the Soviet Economy. John Riddell 250. From Marx to Morales: Indigenous Socialism and the Latin Americanization of Marxism. John Riddell 251. Bolivian President Condemns Europe’s Anti-Migrant Law. Evo Morales 252. Harvest of Injustice: The Oppression of Migrant Workers on Canadian Farms. Adriana Paz 253. Revolutionary Organization Today: Part One. Paul Le Blanc and John Riddell 254. Revolutionary Organization Today: Part Two. Paul Le Blanc and John Riddell 255. The Harper ‘Apology’ — Saying ‘Sorry’ with a Forked Tongue. Mike Krebs ——————————————————————————————————— Socialist Voice #249, June 8, 2008 Che Guevara’s Final Verdict on the Soviet Economy By John Riddell One of the most important developments in Cuban Marxism in recent years has been increased attention to the writings of Ernesto Che Guevara on the economics and politics of the transition to socialism. A milestone in this process was the publication in 2006 by Ocean Press and Cuba’s Centro de Estudios Che Guevara of Apuntes criticos a la economía política [Critical Notes on Political Economy], a collection of Che’s writings from the years 1962 to 1965, many of them previously unpublished. The book includes a lengthy excerpt from a letter to Fidel Castro, entitled “Some Thoughts on the Transition to Socialism.” In it, in extremely condensed comments, Che presented his views on economic development in the Soviet Union.[1] In 1965, the Soviet economy stood at the end of a period of rapid growth that had brought improvements to the still very low living standards of working people. -
Modern Monetary Theory: a Marxist Critique
Class, Race and Corporate Power Volume 7 Issue 1 Article 1 2019 Modern Monetary Theory: A Marxist Critique Michael Roberts [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/classracecorporatepower Part of the Economics Commons Recommended Citation Roberts, Michael (2019) "Modern Monetary Theory: A Marxist Critique," Class, Race and Corporate Power: Vol. 7 : Iss. 1 , Article 1. DOI: 10.25148/CRCP.7.1.008316 Available at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/classracecorporatepower/vol7/iss1/1 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Arts, Sciences & Education at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Class, Race and Corporate Power by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Modern Monetary Theory: A Marxist Critique Abstract Compiled from a series of blog posts which can be found at "The Next Recession." Modern monetary theory (MMT) has become flavor of the time among many leftist economic views in recent years. MMT has some traction in the left as it appears to offer theoretical support for policies of fiscal spending funded yb central bank money and running up budget deficits and public debt without earf of crises – and thus backing policies of government spending on infrastructure projects, job creation and industry in direct contrast to neoliberal mainstream policies of austerity and minimal government intervention. Here I will offer my view on the worth of MMT and its policy implications for the labor movement. First, I’ll try and give broad outline to bring out the similarities and difference with Marx’s monetary theory. -
Pruduir El Comú Del Comú
CALIU L’àmbit de la defensa de la vida i la cerca de la Altres títols de la col·lecció reproducció autodeterminada no és només el Caliu Espai Editorial Sobiranies: principal terreny de lluita. Està sent també, en múltiples llocs del món, l’àmbit bàsic de pro- ducció de noves capacitats polítiques per a la El Apantle. Revista de Estudios Comuni- · A mós redó. Cuinant la transformació social i la construcció d’una opció de futur més enllà del capital. En aquest sentit, tarios naix al caliu del «Primer Congreso sobirania alimentària al País aquest llibre és una invitació a pensar i reflexio- Internacional de Comunalidad» amb la in- Valencià nar sobre l’horitzó de transformació política més tenció de generar un coneixement situat · Projecte A. Estructures enllà dels projectes d’emancipació centrats en i preocupat per entendre la multiplicitat la presa de l’estat. Aquest volum reuneix expe- de formes polítiques comunitàries que llibertàries per a la vida en riències, etnografies i assajos publicats en la re- es practiquen i es pensen des de baix del comú. vista El Apantle, publicada a Mèxic. Tots aquests continent llatinoamericà. Compost per materials tenen el propòsit de pensar des de la militants, estudiants i professores que van producció del comú. Es tracta, en aquest sen- participar en el Seminario de Investigación tit, d’una aposta per a generar un coneixement Permanente «Entramados Comunitarios y situat i centrat en l’autonomia política de les Formas de lo Político» de la Universidad lluites, però també sobre els límits, dificultats Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP), en estreta i contradiccions experimentades quotidiana- ment en les trames encarregades de la cura, coordinació amb la Sociedad Comunitaria defensa i sosteniment de la vida. -
Marketocracy and the Capture of People and Planet
The Jus Semper Global Alliance In Pursuit of the People and Planet Paradigm Sustainable Human Development July 2021 BRIEFS ON TRUE DEMOCRACY AND CAPITALISM Marketocracy and the Capture of People and Planet The acceleration of Twenty-First Century Monopoly Capital Fascism through the pandemic and the Great Reset Álvaro J. de Regil TJSGA/Assessment/SD (TS010) July 2021/Álvaro J. de Regil 1 Prologue Prologue... 2 ❖ Capitalism’s Journey of Dehumanisation... 6 n innate feature of capitalism has been the endless First Industrial Revolution... 6 A pursuit of an ethos with the least possible intervention Second Industrial Revolution... 10 of the state in its unrelenting quest for the reproduction and Third Industrial Revolution... 16 accumulation of capital, at the expense of all other participants ➡Modern Slave Work Stuctures… 20 in the economic activity prominently including the planet. ➡The Anthropocene… 23 Capitalism always demands to be in the driver's seat of the ❖ The Capture of Democracy… 29 economy. Only when its activities are threatened by ➡Sheer Laissez-Faire Ethos… 33 communities and nations opposing the expropriation of their ➡Capital Equated with Human Beings… 34 natural resources and the imposition of structures that extract ➡Untramelled and Imposed Marketrocratic System... 35 the vast majority of the value of labour—the surplus-value—, ❖ Fourth Industrial Revolution... 39 capitalism demands the intervention of the states; these include ➡Conceptual Structure… 41 their armed forces, to protect the exploits of the owners of the ➡Application… 42 system. This is all the more evident in the global South. Across ➡Impact… 44 centuries of imperialism and colonialism, the practice of ❖ The COVID-19 Pandemic… 59 invasion, conquering, expropriation and exploitation by ➡Management of COVID-19.. -
Chapter Z 4 the New Interpretation and the Value of Money Makoto Itoh
Chapter Z 4 The new interpretation and the value of money Makoto Itoh This chapter examines the significance of the so-called new interpretation of Marx’s theory of transforming values into prices of production in the first section, as well as remaining issues on it in the second section, focusing on its definition of value of money and value of labor-power. As an important shortage of the new interpretation is in the absence of the theory of determining the exchange-value of money, we shall try to fill this gap in the subsequent sections. After assessing Moseley’s analysis of the commodity money in the third section as a corollary, we try to examine the dynamic mechanism through business cycles to determine the exchange-value of money commodity in the fourth section. The fifth section briefly argues what happens to the exchange-value of money in the regime of contemporary non-commodity money. 1 The significance of value of money in the new interpretation A 'new interpretation' on the transformation problem concerning Marx's theory of transforming values into prices of production was presented by Foley (1982, 1986) and Duménile(1983). The new interpretation is based on a particular definition of value of money as the monetary expression of labor time. More concretely, the value of money is conceived as 'the ratio of the net domestic product at current prices to the living productive labor expended in an economy over a period of time' (Foley, 2000:21), and thus it represents the average amount of expended labor time obtainable by a unit of money, say a dollar. -
The Poverty of Philosophy and Its Contemporary Relevance
Crisis, Revolution, and the Meaning of Progress: The Poverty of Philosophy and its Contemporary Relevance Michael Joseph Roberto Proudhon and Marx ABSTRACT: In 1847, Marx wrote The Poverty of Philosophy, his polemical response to Pierre Joseph Proudhon’s System of Economical Contradictions Or, The Philosophy of Poverty, published a year earlier. Marx and Proudhon were the principal antagonists in the struggle for influence and control of the emerging European workers movement then fueled by the first great crisis of modern capitalism. While Marx propagated communist revolution as a solution to the crisis, Proudhon sought to preserve “good capitalism” by attempting to formulate a new political economy that would reconcile contradictions of capitalist exchange by means of reciprocal agreements and transactions; in a word, mutualism. In The Poverty of Philosophy, Marx took Proudhon to task for creating a massive “dialectical phantasmagoria” in the System of Economical Contradictions. Usually regarded as his first detailed treatment of political economy, Marx’s book also contains an implicit conception of social and historical progress based on the principles of contradiction, paradox, and Copyright © 2009 by Michael Joseph Roberto and Cultural Logic, ISSN 1097-3087 Michael Joseph Roberto 2 practice. Today, as the U.S. experiences an irreversible and possibly terminal capitalist crisis, Marx’s polemic against Proudhon remains instructive as an historical, theoretical, and practical-political guide. Key features of the Marx- Proudhon divide in the 1840s are now being recast in contemporary guises and forms. The Left must distinguish between revolutionary Marxist solutions and variations of the New Proudhonism. While Marxism holds the potential for revolutionary, socialist transformation and renewed social progress, the New Proudhonism seeks to save “good capitalism” – ironically and tragically, carrying with it the plausibility of a more coercive and barbarous system. -
Hodgson Pour
Revue de la régulation Capitalisme, Institutions, Pouvoirs , n°2, 2008 Fostering Variety in Economics. Entretien avec Geoffrey Hodgson Agnès Labrousse, Julien Vercueil RR. : Although they are not new in economics, evolutionary and institutional approaches have attracted a growing interest since the 1980s. How do you explain that? Geoffrey Hodgson : When I started working on institutional and evolutionary ideas in the early 1980s, I felt almost a lone voice among economists. Now the situation is very different. There are several reasons for the rise in interest in institutional and evolutionary ideas. Until the 1970s, much of the challenge to mainstream ideas was in macroeconomics, reflecting the influence of Keynesian and Marxian approaches. With some exceptions, such as the work of Herbert Simon, orthodox micro-theory faced less opposition. To a significant degree, the rise of institutional, evolutionary and behavioural approaches reflects the growing development of alternative theories in the microeconomic arena. These became significant in the 1980s, notably with the work of Richard Nelson, Sidney Winter and Oliver Williamson. By the 1990s, some of these critical movements had had a major impact on mainstream approaches, and others became more prominent among heterodox economists. The new institutionalists Ronald Coase and Douglass North were awarded Nobel Prizes in 1991 and 1993. The various forms of institutional and evolutionary thought tackle important questions concerning institutions and economic development that were relatively neglected from the 1950s to the 1970s. RR. : Could you present the core propositions of your institutional and evolutionary economics? GH. : Both ‘institutional economics’ and ‘evolutionary economics’ are very broad churches. There are as many important differences within both the original and new institutional economics as there are between them.