From: Rakesh Bhandari (bhandari@BERKELEY.EDU)
Date: Thu Nov 18 2004 - 02:05:35 EST
At 3:23 PM -0500 11/17/04, Paul Zarembka wrote: >Riccardo (not Ricardo) and I know about Luxemburg writing part of >Mehring's bio on Marx which deals with *Capital*. How does it compare to the Intro book? >I don't know how well >this is know, however, and don't know if lack of general knowledge was >politically influenced. But her interpretation is in fact confused, and on the face of it contradictory. One can see the basis of Henryk G's criticism. On the one hand, she underlines that Marx rejected soap box underconsumptionism; moreover, she repudiates it on political grounds as she cannot allow for the possibility of stabilization through income redistribution. On the other hand, she explains crisis as the result of production outstripping consumption! Moreover, as she focuses with brilliant clarity on market related difficulties, Luxemburg leaves undiscussed Marx's theory of the law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall despite the great importance that Marx gave to it. In this sense it cannot be recommended as a summary of the second and third volumes of Das Kapital, though this is what this section claims to be. One wonders what she has to say about the third volume of Das Kapital in her Introduction book. Not to be missed is Mehring's own summary of the 1859 Critique. Very beautifully and lucidly written, I would say. Rakesh
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