From: GERALD LEVY (gerald_a_levy@msn.com)
Date: Sun May 11 2008 - 07:53:45 EDT
> In the analysis I have developed since the 1980s, it is the "total structure of the accumulation process" which has to be looked at empirically. > This is a strongly pro-Marx, but strongly anti-Marxist perspective, insofar as Marxists think that accumulation means simply "extracting surplus > from production". From the point of view of economic theory and history, or from the point of view of what Marx actually says himself, I think this > Marxist idea is obviously false. > Marxists criticize Keynes because Keynes is "bourgeois reformist". But I have a quite different reason to criticize Keynes, namely I think he is > wrong about many foundational questions of economic thought. It is not that Keynes has the wrong "ideological flavour", but that I think in > substance many of his arguments and concepts about how capitalism works are in truth wrong. But that is not something you can > really discuss within Marxist circles, because as soon as you try to do real justice to Keynes's argument, you get labelled "reformist". Hi Jurriaan: The focus by Marx in _Capital_, classical political economists before Marx (including Ricardo, for example), and most Marxians who have written on political economy was on explaining the *long-run* tendencies of capitalism: the "law (or laws) of motion" of capital. What is not examined in any depth is *short-run* macroeconomic dynamics - and that was the focus of Keynes. Keynes didn't really have as developed a theory of production as did Marx or even some Austrian economists (e.g. Bohm-Bawerk; von Mises) in large part because of this self-imposed limitation. In any event, I think that if you want to understand and critique Keynes, you have to do so by also focusing in on short-run dynamics and the short- to medium-term consequences and limitations of state fiscal and monetary policy. In solidarity, Jerry _______________________________________________ ope mailing list ope@lists.csuchico.edu https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/ope
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat May 31 2008 - 00:00:04 EDT