Tag Archives: Karl Marx

Robert Vienneau approaches thinking about Marx in relation to previous economists from the perspective of the different distinctions that Marx drew. This is entirely consistent with Marx's training in philosophy, since a cardinal principle of philosophical method is overcoming apparent difficulties in expression by drawing distinctions. This involves changing the grain of the model. A grainy model has the advantage of simplicity but risks the disadvantage of being too simplistic an...

Marx can be read as both a continuation and a critique of classical economics. A not-too-radical reading might emphasize his claim to find distinctions in economic theory glossed over by classical economists such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo. According to Marx, classical economists (as opposed to vulgar economists such as Frédéric Bastiat, Jean-Baptiste Say, and and Nassau William Senior) penetrated beneath surface phenomena to reveal the anatomy of capitalism. A more radical reading...

Robert Vienneau has a question for Marxists/Marxians/Marx scholars.Thoughts On EconomicsLabor Values Taken As GivenRobert Vienneau

I have been considering a case in which a simple Labor Theory of Value (LTV) is a valid theory of prices of production. When, for each technique, all processes have the same organic composition of capital, prices of production are proportional to labor values. Given labor values and direct labor coefficients in each industry, an uncountably infinite number of techniques - as specified by a Leontief input-output specified in terms of physical inputs per physical outputs - satisfies these...

Putin is correct in this observation, although the West refuses to recognize it. Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Ivan Melnikov … said that “communists and all the leftist patriotic forces [in Russia] understand that communism is [as] close to Christianity as much as the form of capitalism that exists in our country and our economy today is far from Christianity.”... It's likely no accident that the candidate in the coming presidential election who is regarded as Putin's chief...

Figure 1: Physical Production Data as a Side Route1.0 Introduction One way of reading the first volume of Marx's Capital is that labor values provide a foundation, upon which the structure of prices of production and, eventually market prices are based. I find that, for example, Joseph Schumpeter presents Marx's work in this way. Another reading takes both labor values and prices as founded on physical data specifying the technique in use. Ian Steedman, as illustrated in Figure 2,...

If you are at all interested in Marx, you will likely find this interesting and even provocative. It views Marx's work in terms of evolutionary theory and introduces "life-capital."CounterpunchLife Grounding Marx 150 Years After CapitalJohn McMurtry John McMurtry is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada whose work is translated from Latin America to Japan. He is the author of the three-volume Philosophy and World Problems published by UNESCO’s Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS),...

Coefficients for First Column in Leontief Input-Output Matrix I have uploaded a draft paper with the post title to my SSRN site. Abstract:This note demonstrates that the special case condition, needed for a simple labor theory of value (LTV), of equal organic compositions of capital does not suffice to determine technology. A model of the production of commodities, with circulating capital and all commodities basic, is analyzed. Given direct labor coefficients and labor values, an...

The latest data for net fixed assets in the US have been released, enabling me to update the calculations for the US rate of profit a la Marx up to 2016. Last year, I did the calculations with the help of Anders Axelsson from Sweden, who not only replicated the results to ensure their accuracy (and found mistakes!), but also produced a manual for carrying out the calculations that anybody could use. As I did last year and in previous years, I have also updated the rate of profit using the...

Coefficients for Iron-Production in the Leontief Input-Output Matrix I have uploaded a working paper with the post title. Abstract: This note demonstrates that the special case condition, needed for a simple labor theory of value, of equal organic compositions of capital does not suffice to determine technology. Prices do not vary across techniques for both techniques in a numeric example of a two-commodity linear model of production, and they are proportional to labor values. Both...