In all modesty, I would like to reaffirm that "Sandwichman's answer" was
actually Kalecki's. As for the possibility of a stable capitalism under a
different political alignment -- yes, I think that would be possible, in
principle, for a transitional period. The very condition of enduring
stability, however, would so empower labor and diminish returns to capital
("euthanasia of the rentier class") that "capitalism" would soon be replaced
(see Dilke's "The Source and Remedy of the National Difficulties" for a
pre-Marx take on this possibility).Rather than dwelling exclusively on what Marx himself thought stabilization, I think a much richer array of "options" can be discerned by taking Marx's analysis together with Dilke's and Kalecki's. I don't know if Brad is familiar with Dilke's 1821 pamphlet and its influence on Marx's analysis of surplus value. http://www.scribd.com/doc/11566711/The-Source-and-Remedy-of-the-National-Difficulties On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 3:41 PM, raghu <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 5:18 PM, Doug Henwood <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > On May 3, 2011, at 6:08 PM, raghu wrote: > > > >> So the PEN-L answer to "Bad" DeLong's question: "Given the absence of > >> commercial crises and depressions in the AMP and the FMP, why wouldn't > >> replicating the building of cathedrals, the building of aqueducts, or > >> the conquest of Gaul stave off the crisis and so allow capitalism to > >> engage in stable, balanced growth?" > >> > >> is: "the political forces make such an outcome impossible"? > > > > Was that the answer? I must have been distracted this afternoon so I > didn't see that. > > > > Were they making commodities for sale on the marked in the Old Days? Was > there substantial reinvestment of surplus to produce growth and fatter > profits? Rapid technological innovation and competitive markets? I didn't > think so. So how's there any historical analogy possible here? > > > > > Sorry, I shouldn't have said "the PEN-L answer". I was referring to > the comments of Eugene Coyle, the Sandwichman and to part of Jim > Devine's messages that suggested that the political power of the > financiers and the capitalist interests was a big factor why > "Keynesian" state action to counteract capitalist crises was not in > general possible. > -raghu. > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > -- Sandwichman
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