Tag Archives: critique

World Review of Political Economy Vol. 9, No. 4, Journal Article Is the Financialization Hypothesis a Theoretical Blind Alley? Stavros Mavroudeas and Demophanes Papadatos World Review of Political Economy Vol. 9, No. 4 (Winter 2018), pp. 451-476 Published by: Pluto Journals DOI: 10.13169/worlrevipoliecon.9.4.0451 https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.13169/worlrevipoliecon.9.4.0451 Page Count: 26...

Labour value in volume 1 of Capital is defined in the following passages: “A use-value, or useful article, therefore, has value only because human labour in the abstract has been embodied or materialised in it. How, then, is the magnitude of this value to be measured? Plainly, by the quantity of the value-creating substance, the labour, contained in the article.” (Marx 1906: 45).“Since the magnitude of the value of a commodity represents only the quantity of labour embodied in it, it follows...

The following proposition is asserted as true by Marxists (e.g., Foley 1986: 16): Proposition 1: Socially necessary labour time is the only source of value. Marx asserted this numerous times, though not necessarily in these words, and here are some examples: “A use-value, or useful article, therefore, has value only because human labour in the abstract has been embodied or materialised in it. How, then, is the magnitude of this value to be measured? Plainly, by the quantity of the...

What is wrong with the Left today? In my view, a big problem is the ideology called Postmodernism.Chomsky in the video below gives us some fascinating insights into the origins of French Poststructuralism – and also into its modern offshoot Postmodernism.Remember he is talking about the origin of French Poststructuralism in the early 1970s.[embedded content]Chomsky understood the origins of Poststructuralism very well: many of the big French Poststructuralists – like Roland Barthes...

This is a talk by Walter Block on Austrian economics and its disagreements with neoclassical economics, given at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, the US, on 21 July, 2015.[embedded content]I want to focus on epistemological issues here.Let us review the epistemological problems here one by one: (1) the Austrians badly misunderstand the philosophy and epistemology of the logical positivists.For Austrians like Block the expression “logical positivism” is simply an ignorant term of abuse...

In the links below I update my series of posts debunking Marxist economics and ideology, to complement my series on Debunking Austrian economics 101.As in the series on Austrian economics, not all posts actually debunk Marxism, but sometimes provide outlines or summaries of Marxist theory or interesting points on Marxism or Karl Marx’s life and thought. There are also some points where constructive things can be said: on endogenous money, the falsity of Say’s law and the monetary theory of...

When Austrians (metaphorically) shoot themselves in the foot, the results are usually amusing.We are treated to just such a delightful spectacle here: Robert P. Murphy, “Mises and the Market,” Dailycaller.com, 26th August, 2015. http://dailycaller.com/2015/08/26/mises-and-the-market/ This is Robert Murphy’s defence of the Austrian business cycle theory (ABCT) as an explanation of recent global turmoil on stock markets and other economic problems.The astute reader will notice that in the...