Robert Vienneau: Thoughts Economics

This is another letter in a series I have been transcribing in which Marx explains his theory to Engels. In 1867, he was going through the proofs of Capital and so penned several such letters. I think one can ignore Hegel and read Marx as presenting a scientific theory, from abstract principles to more concrete applications. I would not necessarily disagree with those who think such a reading misses much. But I find it interesting how much this reading captures. I like that in this...

I find that I summarized the Ellsberg paradox back in 2009. I have also commented on who in the United States was prosecuted for leaking classified information to the press. Eric Loomis has an obituary. The Pentagon Papers are now unclassified and available from the National Archives. As I understand it, Ellsberg copied each page personally - no downloading to a thumb drive in his day. David Halberstam's book, The Best and the Brighest is a well-known work of journalism (the first draft of...

Isabella Weber's Sellers' inflation, profits and conflict: why can large firms hike prices in an emergency?, in the Review of Keynesian Economics. Isabella Weber et al Inflation in times of overlapping emergencies: systemically significant prices from an input-output perspective, a working paper. Zachary Carter's profile of Isabella Weber in the New Yorker. Noah Smith's muddle and more muddle. Zachary Carter has a book, The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John...

Figure 1: Prices of Corn and Ale in an Iterative Process1.0 Introduction Anwar Shaikh proposed, sometime in the 1970s, I guess, an interpretation of Marx's transformation problem. Marx's solution in volume 3 of Capital is the first step of an iterative process. I thought I might work through this idea with an example from an old exposition of mine. I am not sure how faithful I am to Shaikh's approach. I notice that as I explain it, the equality of total values and of total prices is...

Is historical materialism a deterministic theory? Must all societies (in particular, Russia) go through the same stages, including feudalism, capitalism, and, eventually, socialism? Perhaps Marx says otherwise in the following letter. London, 8 March 1881 41 Maitland Park Road, N.W. Dear Citizen, A nervous complaint which has assailed me periodically over the last ten years has prevented me from replying any sooner to your letter of 16 February. I am sorry that...

Here Marx sets out the transformation problem in a letter to Engels. The first volume of Capital was published in 1967. So this is another instance of Marx distinguishing labor values and prices of production before publication of Capital. This post is the second in a series I am working on in which he sets out critical parts of the (critique of) political economy in Capital in letters to Engels. As I understand it, the concept of absolute rent was original with Marx. Marx criticizes...

Selected Biographies AuthorYearTitleGustav Gross1885Karl Marx: Eine StudieWilliam Liebknecht1896Karl Marx, Biographical MemoirsPaul Lafargue1905My Recollections of Karl MarxVarious1908Karl Marx: In memoriamJonathan Spargo1910Karl Marx: his life and workClara Zetkin1913Karl Marx und Sein LebenswerkFranz Mehring1918Karl Marx: The story of his lifeOtto Ruhle1926Karl Marx: Leben und WerkDavid Riazanov1927Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: an introduction to their lives and worksInstitute of...

When one achieves at least partial enlightenment, one will realize that one's income does not necessarily reward productivity, effort, or any other virtue. "For we each of us deserve everything, every luxury that was ever piled in the tombs of the dead kings, and we each of us deserve nothing, not a mouthful of bread in hunger. Have we not eaten while another starved? Will you punish us for that? Will you reward us for the virtue of starving while others ate? No man earns punishment, no...

In this letter, Marx outlines the three volumes of Capital. I know about this letter from Fred Moseley's Money and Totality (2016). Is this where scholars learned about Marx's mother (-in-law?) saying, "If only Karl had accumulated capital instead of writing about it"? The context is a discussion, in a couple of previous letters, of the effects of inflation on the rate of profits. This letter is more evidence that Marx was quite conscious of the transformation problem. (Theories of Surplus...

[embedded content]Cordelia Belton at Red MayMatthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell's Know Your Enemy podcast. Benedict and Kevin's Not Your Grandmother's Book Club podcast. Brendan Cooney and Andrew Kliman's Radio Free Humanity podcast. Doug Henwood on McCarthyism. Peter Boetkke and Rosolino Candela On the feasibility of technosocialism. An old essay of mine on a Sraffian interpretation of Marx.