[OPE-L:4916] Re: RE: Epicycles (was "causes of changes in prices of production")

From: Rakesh Narpat Bhandari (rakeshb@Stanford.EDU)
Date: Fri Feb 16 2001 - 14:57:43 EST


re Andrew K's 4914


>
>I am perfectly capable of returning Fred's serve (providing an
>alternative interpretation of his quotations).  But I want to play
>tennis, not just hit the ball back and forth across the net.  For
>us to play tennis, we must agree on the rules and the methods of
>scoring before play commences.

Andrew (K),
I don't believe this. What is your alternative interpretation of the 
passage in which Marx lays out the only two reasons why he allows 
prices of production to change?
>
>
>1.  If Marx was referring to the same profit rate in Ch. 6 and
>Part II, and if Marx didn't contradict himself, then Fred's
>interpretation of the Part II evidence is wrong.


I don't read this section as evidence against Fred's thesis that 
prices of production change only due to changes in the value of 
commodities (or the productivity of labor) since in this section Marx 
tries to to trace out the complex effects on the rate of profit from 
a change in the VALUE of newly produced raw materials when there are 
substantial stocks on hand. Of course Marx agrees that prices and 
therewith the profit rate can change due to the effects of the credit 
system, the regime of competition, etc. But these changes could only 
be explained in terms of how they effect deviations from prices of 
production which are grounded (indirectly and directly) in the value 
of commodities or--to put it another way--the productivity of labor.

Yours, Rakesh



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