Re: [OPE] topics for summer discussion: theories of the crisis

From: paul bullock <paulbullock@ebms-ltd.co.uk>
Date: Wed Jul 28 2010 - 18:30:57 EDT

Thanks
Alejandro

Paul b

-----Original Message-----
From: ope-bounces@lists.csuchico.edu [mailto:ope-bounces@lists.csuchico.edu]
On Behalf Of Alejandro Valle Baeza
Sent: 23 July 2010 15:49
To: Outline on Political Economy mailing list
Subject: Re: [OPE] topics for summer discussion: theories of the crisis

Hi Paul, any comment are welcome. I am ataching another article about
crisis: Desarrollo de la actual crisis", Contribución a la critica N° 4
Invierno de 2009. It was published in Argentina.

Muchos saludos
Alejandro

paul bullock escribió:
> Alejandro,
>
> Any chance you can forward an attachment/ copy of your 2008 article
> for me to read?
>
> Cheers
>
> Paul Bullock
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ope-bounces@lists.csuchico.edu
> [mailto:ope-bounces@lists.csuchico.edu]
> On Behalf Of Dave Zachariah
> Sent: 22 July 2010 21:26
> To: Outline on Political Economy mailing list
> Subject: Re: [OPE] topics for summer discussion: theories of the
> crisis
>
> On 2010-07-22 21:31, Alejandro Valle Baeza wrote:
>
>> If you agree, I would like to discuss your formulation.
>>
>
> Of course, I would be very interested in pursuing that discussion.
>
>
>> I agree on this at all. I published in Spanish "US crisis and profits"
>> ("la crisis estadounidense y la ganancia" Razón y Revolución, num.
>> 18, segundo semestre de 2008, pp. 79-93) devoted to answer (very
>> tentatively) why US is in crises after a period of profitability
>> recovering? I pointed out the basic role of the debt rise in the crisis.
>>
>>
>
> It would have been interesting to have a look at your paper, but
> unfortunately I can't read Spanish.
>
>> I think you are right on this. For the last paragraph I recall
>> Farjoun and Machover book: Laws of Chaos and some Cockshott and Cotrell
articles.
>>
>>
>
> Yes, I'm heavily influenced by their probabilistic approach.
>
>
>>> As an alternative to this formulation, I believe the approach taken
>>> by Paul C, Allin and myself is more fruitful: It can be shown that
>>> average profitability is determined by the balance of three factors:
>>>
>>> 1. Growth rate of labour
>>> 2. Growth rate of productivity
>>> 3. Level of investment ratio
>>>
>>> The two first act to raise profitability, while the last factor
>>> lowers it. Clearly the significance of the first factor has vanished
>>> in the industrialized economies. It turns out that in general the
>>> most significant factor is the investment ratio. Note that this is
>>> *independent* of the level of the wage share, thus eliminating one
>>> factor from the analysis of profitability.
>>>
>>>
>> Please let me know the reference for this or better send to me your
>> paper
>>
> if it is possible.
>
> The article about profitability is available here,
>
> Determinants of the average profit rate and the trajectory of
> capitalist economies
> Published in Bulletin of Political Economy (Vol.3, No.1, 2009)
> http://reality.gn.apc.org/econ/Zachariah_AverageProfitRate_v7.pdf
>
> and extending it is a joint article with Paul C, recently published in
> Science & Society (Vol. 74, No. 3, 2010). The pre-print of that
> article can be found here:
>
> Credit Crunch: Origins and Orientation
> http://reality.gn.apc.org/econ/creditcrisis.pdf
>
>
>> There were Marxist analysis on balance of class forces when rate of
>> profit diminished. Recall profit squeeze theorist during the
>> seventies but not after that.
>>
>
> You are right about this. It is clearly a central element in Glyn's
> framework, and partly adopted by Harvey. But again they are people who
> are familiar with European labour movements.
>
> But for Shaikh, arguably one of the best Marxist economists today, the
> organization of labour appears to have no clear role in the trajectory
> of capitalist economies. It is not even a passive element in the
> system's laws, it is absent. I think it is hard to understand the
> important shifts within capitalism without taking into account the
> balance of class forces. I suppose the peculiarity of the US
> working-class movement is the cause of this theoretical absence.
>
>> I enjoyed most of the paper, specially empirical discussion. I think
>> this sort of analysis should be current discussion in Marxist circles
>> and Husson paper is quite valuable for this.
>>
>>
>
> Agreed. I think Husson's paper shows how to conduct the type of
> discussions we ought to be having on OPE-L.
>
> //Dave Z
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-- 
Alejandro Valle Baeza
Posgrado, Fac. Economía, UNAM
Av. Universidad 3000, México 04510, DF.
56222148
Página personal <http://www.paginasprodigy.com/avalleb>:
Blog sobre crisis <http://crisis-economica.blogspot.com>
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Received on Wed Jul 28 18:34:34 2010

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