Thanks to Robert McKee for forwarding that analysis by Michael Roberts. From first reading, I must say that Roberts has a rather interesting analysis of the rln between real investment and fictitious capital. The latter can drive the process forward for some time. * On women and capitalism, I enjoyed reading Ann Cudd and Nancy Holmstrom's new book. By emphasizing the improvements in women's lives under capitalism (reduced fertility, increased longevity, reduced morbidity, increased opportunity to have a political voice), Cudd has probably written a stronger apologia for capitalism than Schumpeter or Hayek with their sexist blinders ever could have! Yet because so much of care, household and reproductive labor does not assist directly in the production and realization of surplus value, it is systematically devalued in capitalism. For that reason, among others, women will never be equal or free under capitalism even if the glass ceilings are removed. Capitalism capitalizes on patriarchy, on women submitting cheerfully to work that the capitalists themselves do not value. Women will always be outsiders, active sources of criticism of a social life organized around commodity production. And to this add the overvaluation of sons, as more reliable sources of income streams in a capitalist society since they will not be burdened with household labor. That overvaluation is having catastrophic consequences on the health of girls, to say nothing of sex ratios.
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