Duncan K. Foley wrote:
>
> I've been meaning to try to address some of John Ernst's posts for a while now.
>
> The way I think about the problem of the rate of profit is basically the
> same as Allin's. Ex post.
Duncan, you are correct, that ex post, calculations are
unproblematical. But Marx insists that what drives the system is the
quest for profit [surplus value]. That quest is ex ante.
For empirical purposes,of course, we do not even have the ex post data.
In the U.S. the Commerce Dept. more or less keeps tracks of the new
capital, but does not do a good job of tracking the scrapping and
discarding of capital.
Duncan, I note that in your dissertation suggestions, everything was
empirical. I would like to know how much you trust the official data.
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 916-898-5321 E-Mail michael@ecst.csuchico.edu