guava tree wrote: //do people think reading volumes 2&3 of Capital is more valuable than reading the Grundrisse?
David Harvey, who conducts a most helpful 13-class video course online on Capital volume 1 (which I recently took and thereby gained a much better understanding of the book), recommends going on from volume 1 to read both volumes 2 and 3. This is because they are organized sequentially: volume 1 takes up the production process of commodities under the system of capital accumulation, volume 2 deals with the circulation of capital and volume 3 develops from there the problems of the reinvestment and redistribution of capital surplus. I'm now reading volume 2 for the first time, using the online MIA study guide which, while its authors recommended it for group study, seems useful for individual study. They supply the relevant textual references for the issues raised in the guide. Harvey's The Limits to Capital (New edition 2006) is in good part an exposition of volume 3 and its problems. It is difficult to sort out, according to Harvey, as to the functions - in the process of realization, mobilization and reinvestment of surplus and reproduction of capital - of interest, the credit system, financial innovation, the state and its institutional structures, and not least the failure of Marx to complete his analysis of the role of international trade - and how these factors contribute to and have helped to surmount the many barriers to the cumulative growth of capital - the overcoming of these barriers being absolutely essential to the perpetuation of the system. Harvey lays out a lot of this very rapidly and succinctly in his CUNY lecture in November 2008 on The Enigma of Capital (available in audio form on Wikipedia). There he also briefly elaborates on the importance of the Grundrisse, which in its central parts also covers the notion of potential limits and barriers to the accumulation of capital, resulting crises and the manner in which they are transcended or circumvented. (Or not?) Ralph ________________________________________________ YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
