[lbo-talk] Re: NYT "Too Much Capital"

John Mage jmage at panix.com
Sun Mar 27 13:53:19 PST 2005


So, Doug, let's see now what it is we agree about:

1. Compared to the times in which Baran & Sweezy wrote Monopoly Capital (early 60s), both global and U.S. capitalism have experienced a considerable and long lasting reduction of the rate of economic growth. The overall direction is considerably slower growth, but there are ups and downs within each day, month, year, decade, any 18 year period one chooses, etc...

2. Compared to the times in which Baran & Sweezy wrote Monopoly Capital (early 60s), capital realizes less profit in manufacture and ever more and more in services and this has been accompanied by a series of glittering and stupendous global and indeed universal and cosmic cultural triumphs of consumerism (or in 60s language "an intensified sales effort").

3. We both would like to see what has happened to concentration indices from the times in which Baran & Sweezy wrote Monopoly Capital (early 60s) to the present, both for global and U.S. capitalism, if any such exist. We agree that this would be particularly interesting for private provision of services (we mentioned retail trade , banking and financial, communications - i would add provision of food and health). [Any lboster able to help here?] We agree that the brakeup of governmental or regulated utility provision of services into private oligopolies is worth noting, whatever our view of how best to account for this in measuring overall concentration.

4. Compared to the times in which Baran & Sweezy wrote Monopoly Capital (early 60s), there has been an increase in U.S. centered global capitalism's exercise of imperial and military power around the world, so that today it is reasonable to compare its current level of activity to the period of 1870-1914.

5. Since the times in which Baran & Sweezy wrote Monopoly Capital (early 60s), resistance to U.S. centered global capitalism has suffered a series of defeats both in its internal core class struggle aspect and at the peripheries of the system. This is to some degree offset by successful acts of resistance, notably the resistance signified by the names Castro and Chavez.

If this is not unfair :-) , i'd say we agree about the basics. What did Christian have to say?

john



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