I mostly agree with Andrew and Chai-on .... but with one significant
difference. As John asserts, you can talk about expected depreciation.
You can even expect moral depreciation with a degree of certainty ....
but, this certainty is not always justified.
whereby ficititious values are ascribed to capital.
In addition, unexpected technical change does occur, catching capitalists
off guard.
One way capital maintains its expected values is a purely accounting
measure, whereby ficititious values are ascribed to capital.
Crises also occur. Crises are periods where fictitious capital is wiped
out, but also perfectly good capital is abnormally devalued.
My own feeling is that treating the "c" as known in advance is appropriate
for studying equilibria, or periods that do not deviate from equilibrium
too much, but it is inappropriate for understanding the formation of
crises.
I hope that this clears up my own position.
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 916-898-5321
E-Mail michael@ecst.csuchico.edu