Alejandro Valle Baeza writes that: >>I think that Dumenil et al showed that rate of profit is falling in the long run in the US economy.<< The last book that Alejandro cites Dumenil & Levy, The Economics of Profit Rate, does not show a downward trend from 1869 to the present. Rather, the data show a pattern of the following sort: "Considering the trend of the accounting profit rate, th periodization can be stated as follows. A first period is evident from the beginning of the series [1869] up to the 1900s [during which the profit rate falls]. At this point, the tendency is reverse, and the profit rate is progressively augmented from then 1910s to the 1940s. Then a new decline is initiated. This trend begins in 1869 at 39.3 percent, falls to a minimum value of 22.5 percent in 1912; it reaches its maximum in 1951 at 35.5 percent, and then falls back to 25.4 percent in 1989." (p. 256) in pen-l solidarity, Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] <74267,[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Econ. Dept., Loyola Marymount Univ. 7900 Loyola Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045-8410 USA 310/338-2948 (daytime, during workweek); FAX: 310/338-1950 "It takes a busload of faith to get by." -- Lou Reed.
