[OPE-L:6263] Re: Re: Alfredo's book

From: Asfilho@aol.com
Date: Mon Jan 07 2002 - 05:13:57 EST


Jerry is absolutely correct.
 
Indeed, in order to understand a range of contemporary phenomena, such as the 
crisis in Argentina, a theory of the state, trade, finance and (the limits 
of) economic policy is necessary.
 
My book does not deal with these issues in detail. This is partly because of 
the limitations of current research, and partly because the main objective of 
the book is to develop (and build upon) an interpretation of value theory 
that is compatible with the work of many of our colleagues, that can 
hopefully support and help to extend their work, and that will contribute to 
the further development of Marxian analysis. In this sense, my book is both 
'incompete' and 'open', and deliberately so.
 
However, openness does not imply equivocation. In the book, I develop a clear 
argument for a particular interpretation of value analysis, and show how and 
why it is, in my view, useful. I also try to explain clearly the meaning and 
significance of the key categories of value analysis, including the 
relationship between concrete and abstract labour, the nature and magnitude 
of value, the process of determination of value, the relationship between 
value and price, and so on. 
 
The analysis of money, credit and inflation, in the final chapter, is an 
application of the principles developed elsewhere in the book. Hopefully the 
principles explained there *can* help us analyse inflation and stabilisation 
in Argentina (although I haven't done this; my own work focuses on Brazil - 
but this is not included in the book).
 
alfredo.



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