Re: [OPE-L] The Antichrist

From: Pen-L Fred Moseley (fmoseley@MTHOLYOKE.EDU)
Date: Sat Apr 28 2007 - 11:23:50 EDT 

Quoting Jurriaan Bendien <adsl675281@TISCALI.NL>:

> What I would like to know is where I can find Fred's argument that "that the
> Kliman-McGlone perspective on the transformation is *in reality* an
> attempted
> *correction* of Marx". It must be in the time I wasn't on OPE-L. I suppose I
> can track it down in the list archive, but it's quicker if you give me a
> clue.

I don’t really argue that Kliman presents a "correction", but rather a
misinterpretation of Marx’s theory.  In Kliman’s view, Marx’s theory of
prices of production in Part 2 of Volume 3 presents only the first
period of a multi-period transformation of values into prices of
production.  So in Kliman’s view, he is extending and completing Marx’s
transformation.  Kliman’s interpretation is essentially the same as
Shaikh’s "iterative" interpretation, except that Kliman argues that the
iterations are real historical periods, rather than logical (as in
Shaikh).

I argue that both of these interpretations are mistaken.  Marx’s
determination of prices of production in Part 2 is not "incomplete" in
either a historical or a logical sense.  The inputs of constant capital
and variable capital in Part 2 are not assumed to be equal to the
values of the means of production and means of subsistence, but are
instead assumed to be equal to their prices of production, so that
Marx’s determination of the prices of production of the outputs is
complete and logically consistent.

I have attached a paper on Marx’s theory of prices of production as
long-run center of gravity prices, which has a brief discussion of
Kliman’s interpretation on pp. 28-31.


> Fred usually has a very careful reading of Marx (unlike many other
> anglo-saxon Marx-scholars) and therefore you always benefit from his writing
> in some way (even if I disagree on some issues, like PUPL). One way of
> putting it is, that Fred wants to be Marx's friend, whereas Kliman wants
> Marx to be his friend.

Thank you, Jurrian.  I like that.

Comradely,
Fred

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