We now have 37 list members (a current listing is appended to the end of
this post). This month began with OPE-L #909. There were more posts
written this month than in any previous month. Participation, as well,
increased.
I have decided to post a "INDEX" tomorrow separately which will list the
posts by thread in order to condense this review and highlight what was
discussed.
I. TOPICS DISCUSSED THIS MONTH
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The overwhelming bulk of posts written in February concerned the
following three topics (all continued from January):
* valuation of constant capital and moral depreciation;
* the "transformation problem", especially the TSS interpretation of Marx;
* price-value equivalence and Ch. 5, VI
Additionally, we discussed more briefly other topics such as:
* individual prices in V1 and capitalism as a totality;
* Marx, Ricardo, money;
* Constant or changing social values;
* TSS and the General Law of Capitalist Accumulation;
* Modes of production and exploitation;
* Value and socialism;
* Lucas and rational expectations;
A memorable event was Alan's series of "Last Vast Blast" (LVB) posts that
began on 2/19.
Towards the end of the month, we also began to discuss:
* value and vulnerabilities and weaknesses of capitalism;
* value, use value, ecology
There also was a flurry of discussion related to money, gold production,
and credit-money (which grew out of Alan's LVB posts and the
"vulnerabilities" thread).
II. Procedural Discussions
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
We had procedural discussions this month that included a discussion of
whether we wish to keep the list closed. See Alan's posts #912-913 and
responses by Steve K [915], Paul Z [918], John [919], Paul C [921] on
February 1 and Andrew's [928] on February 2.
We also discussed briefly the question of the archives. See Jerry' [1068]
and Duncan's [1070] written on February 15.
Also discussed were ideas for new threads. See my post [1206] and Paul
Z's proposal that we discuss the distinction between the accumulation of
capital and capitalism [1209], Paul B's post proposing the thread on
value and the vulnerabilities and weaknesses of capitalism [1210], and
Steve K's [1212] all written on the 23rd.
III. Outstanding Issues
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
* Where do we go from here? I ask, one again, that listmembers make
suggestions for topics to be discussed. So far, members have mostly
voted with their keyboards.
* What do we do about the archives? I am now of the opinion that we
should move towards establishing a duplicate archives site in
order to make the archives publicly available. When I receive
more input and information, I will make a formal proposal.
* NOTE: There will be a brief lull in March when many listmembers go
to Boston for the value mini-conference.
OVERALL, this was a very exciting, although anarchic, month, IMO. We
discussed a number of important issues in a more thorough manner than
they have *ever* been discussed before. We need to continue to select
important issues to discuss and discuss them with the same level of
engagement and seriousness.
In OPE-L Solidarity,
Jerry
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OPE-L MEMBERSHIP (by country)
Mariko Adachi (Japan)
Riccardo Bellofiore (Italy)
Rakesh Bhandari (US)
Paul Burkett (US)
Guglielmo Carchedi (Netherlands)
Paul Cockshott (UK)
Allin Cottrell (US)
Stephen Cullenberg (US)
Massimo DeAngelis (UK)
Maria de Lourdes Mollo (Brazil)
Gerard Dumenil (France)
John R. Ernst (US)
Duncan Foley (US)
Alan Freeman (UK)
Makoto Itoh (Japan)
Steve Keen (Australia)
Iwao Kitamura (Japan)
Andrew Kliman (US)
Costas Lapavitsas (UK)
Michael A. Lebowitz (Canada)
Chai-on Lee (Korea)
Dominique Levy (France)
Jerry Levy (US)
Patrick Mason (US)
Paul Mattick, Jr. (US)
Stavros Mavroudeas (Greece)
Simon Mohun (UK)
Fred Moseley (US)
Michael Perelman (US)
Nelson Pinto (Brazil)
Geert Reuten (Netherlands)
Bruce Roberts (US)
Alfredo Saad Filho (UK)
Anwar Shaikh (US)
Gilbert Skillman (US)
Tony Smith (US)
Paul Zarembka (US)