Tag Archives: Marxian Economics

As the 200th anniversary of Marx’s birth gets closer, a host of conferences, articles and books on the legacy of Marx and his relevance today are emerging – including my own contribution. The most interesting was a speech last week by the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney in his homeland of Canada.... Michael Roberts BlogMarx 200: Carney, Bowles and VaroufakisMichael Roberts See also The Guardian — The Long ReadYanis Varoufakis: Marx predicted our present crisis – and points...

Michael Roberts looks at past stock market declines from the POV of the profit rate. Different conditions applied in each case, and the contemporary situation is different, too.Michael Roberts BlogStock market crash: 1987, 2007 or 1937? Michael RobertsKeynes.Stumbling and MumblingEmergence in stock marketsChris Dillow | Investors Chronicle Markets in financial instruments are comprised of two principal cohorts. The first cohort is comprised of "investors," who buy to hold longer term....

In my view, the Chinese economy remains at a structural crossroads. The state and state enterprises continue to dominate the economy in investment, employment and production. That means that foreign capital, domestic private capital and market forces do not hold sway, even though they have been increasing in weight and power over the last 30 years.My view is controversial in Marxist circles. The vast majority of Marxist economists and ‘experts’ on Marx’s ‘theory of the state’ reckon that...

History lesson. Trading one dogmatism for another?Michael Roberts BlogThe economics of Luther or Munzer?Michael Roberts

Review and critique of the latest OECD World Economic Outlook, from a Marxian POV. Useful. The key for me, as readers of this blog know, is what is happening to the profitability of capital in the major economies. If profitability is rising, then corporate investment and economic growth will follow – but also vice versa. But if profitability and profits are falling, debt accumulated will become a major burden. Eventually the zombies will start to go bankrupt, spreading across sectors and...

When Marx’s theory of value is interpreted in a simultaneist way, it is relatively easy to calculate the ‘monetary expression of labor time’ (or MELT)....  There is an additional complication when it comes to measuring the temporal MELT. The temporal MELT is the appropriate measure if Marx’s theory of value is interpreted in a temporal way (as in the ‘temporal single-system interpretation’ or TSSI).... Wonkish. heteconomistOn Estimating the Monetary Expression of Labor Time in a Temporal...

Chris Leslie tweeted yesterday that “Marxism should have no place in a modern Labour Party.” You’d expect me to disagree, and I do. But I want to point out that a Marxist point of view might be an asset for non-Marxists within the party. I say so for three reasons. First, Marxism draws our attention to the fact that politics is shaped by an economic base – by the nature of capitalism.... Herein lies another use of Marxism. It reminds us that the state in capitalism must fulfil two...

Today a new generation, experiencing major capitalist crises, increasingly concerned about its prospects and rising inequality, is powering radical movements in the homelands of capitalism behind figures and forces such as Sanders, Corbyn, Mélanchon, Die Linke, Podemos and Cinque Stelle. Will it bring Capital back into the history of these countries? Not before the burden of western misinterpretation that has accumulated over it for a century and a half, nearly crushing it, is removed. That...

By David FieldsNote: The references below are drawn from The Marx-Engels Reader, edited by Robert C. Tucker.Is Marx’s concern with aspects of alienation subsumed in his mature writings? To suggest so is a falsity. Marx’s depiction of the proletariat becoming, in the Hegelian sense, emancipated from the objective conditions of estranged labour, is not withered as the analysis moves toward the technical conditions of production. Marx’s humanism is still apparent.In Wages, Labour, and...