(Preliminary: I have always categorically rejected the assumption that Marx's theory of value pretends to explain prices -- it does not. It is, as Fredy Perlman puts it, essentially a theory of social relations, a theory of culture, which simply ignores the 'problem' of how prices are established. The proponents of "Capitalism as Power" keep pretending that a core theoretical problem is explaining prices.)
I have several times in past years argued that there is no crisis. Rather, there is a transition to a capitalism that fully exemplifies Chapter 14 of Wages, Price and Profit. Capitalists apparently learned from the experience of the 1960s that even relative material "safety" for workers was extremely dangerous to capitalism: such safety generated demands for free time, i.e. for freedom, incompatible with capitalism. There will be no recovery because, from the perspective of capitalism, there has been no crisis. The only _serious_ meaning of "crisis" is the appearance of a strong mass revolutionary movement demanding free time. Carrol -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jonathan Nitzan Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2014 4:55 PM To: undisclosed-recipients: Subject: [Pen-l] RECASP: Can Capitalists Afford Recovery? Can Capitalists Afford Recovery?Three Views on Economic Policy in Times of Crisis Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler Review of Capital as Power, Vol. 1, No. 1, October, 2014 ABSTRACT: Economic, financial and social commentators from all directions and of various persuasions are obsessed with the prospect of recovery. The world remains mired in a deep, prolonged crisis, and the key question seems to be how to get out of it. The purpose of our paper is to ask a very different question that few if any seem concerned with: can capitalists afford recovery in the first place? The article contextualizes and examines this question from the viewpoint of economic policy. The analysis is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the mainstream macroeconomic perspective. This approach claims to have already solved all the theoretical riddles, so the main emphasis here is on the practical question of how to engineer a recovery. The second part deals with the Marxist view. Marxists stress the inherent contradictions of accumulation, so the question for them is the very possibility of sustained growth. The third and final part takes the view of capital as power. Capitalized power hinges not on growth, but on strategic sabotage. So from this viewpoint, the key question is not how capitalists can achieve and sustain a recovery, but whether they can afford it to start with. VIDEO AND TEXT: http://bnarchives.yorku.ca/414/ *** Recent additions and updates to the Bichler & Nitzan Archives: http://bnarchives.yorku.ca/perl/latest To unsubscribe, reply to this email with "unsubscribe" in the subject field. -- Jonathan Nitzan Political Science || Social and Political Thought York University 4700 Keele St. Toronto, Ontario, M3J-1P3 Canada Voice: (416) 736-2100, ext. 88822 Fax: (416) 736-5686 Email: nitzan at yorku.ca The Bichler & Nitzan Archives:http://bnarchives.net Capital as Power:http://capitalaspower.com RECASP (journal):http://lha.uow.edu.au/hsi/research/recasp/articles/index.html _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
