Re: [OPE-L] centralization of capital

From: Paul Adler (padler@USC.EDU)
Date: Wed Feb 15 2006 - 12:15:13 EST


Thx Jerry. Perhaps I've got it wrong, but I had understood that
centralization referred to the trend to a smaller number of
capitalist controlling a larger proportion of society's total capital
resources, and concentration referred to the growing mass of capital
focused on any given sphere of activity.

  At 12:05 PM -0500 2/15/06, glevy@PRATT.EDU wrote:
>  > I am also unsure what metrics would best capture centralization.
>>  I did a little calculation using Compustat data on the sales of the
>>  largest publicly-held corporations in 1950 versus 2000, and the GDP
>>  for those years. The results were quite startling:
>>  The top 10 corporations total sales represented 10.9% of GDP in 1950,
>>  and 16.5% in 2000.
>>  The 100 corporations' total sales represented 27.4% of GDP in
>>  1950.... and 66% in 2000.
>>  Is this a good way to capture the trend in question?
>
>Hi Paul A,
>
>Isn't that an indication of changes in the *concentration* of capital
>rather than the centralization of capital?
>
>In solidarity, Jerry


--

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