Jerry
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C. List outstanding issues related to understanding capitalism:
Object: identify those aspects of capitalist reality that need further
investigation.
Paul
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Development of money and the credit system in general,
and more particularly:
Interest bearing capital, bank capital and how these
arise from the circuits of capital. Credit in general,
formation of rate of interest, relations between interest
rate money and rate of profit. Transformation of
money under capitalism - state money, cheques, credit cards.
Share capital, holding companies, credit crises.
Overall mechanisms for crises in the circulation process.
2. The economic activity of the state.
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The state as an economic instrument, function of the state
in the economy at different stages of development, mercantilism,
state as force needed for prim acc.
Tax, historical origins. Forms of taxes, direct, indirect,
taxes on capital and land. Effects of these on rate of
surplus value, rate of profit and consumption of different
social classes.
Categories of state unproductive labour. Effects of state
expenditure on overall level of economic activity..
Relation between taxation, expenditure and the money stock.
Limitations on the possible actions of the state. Inflation,
interaction between the state and the contradictions of
accumulation. Types of state expenditure and their
effects on the rates of sv and profit ( welfare spending ).
3. Value relations at an international scale
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What does value mean inthe context of different productivities
of labour in different parts of the world.
How does this concept of value, suitably developed, express
itself as international exchange value under the capitalist
mode of production.
How are prices formed on the world market?
Relationship between movements of commodities and movements
of capital between countries.
Tendancies in the development of capitalism internationally.