As an experiment, produce two identical inventories of socks, to be sold in the exact same places in America. On one pair, affix an image of your face and name. On the other pair, affix an image of Jessica Simpson's face and name. Attempt to sell the sock inventories. Which pair of socks will sell at a greater rate and/or higher price? Why? How is this phenomenon linked to mathematical 'production'?
Another example of the unfettered state of Capital: pick an equity ticker; short one thousand shares. Let's say it goes down one dollar on no news or incident (this happens everyday). Cover (buy back) your shares. You just increased your monetary Capital by $1K.
Why? What has changed? What has been created? You just became one thousand dollars richer because you were able to profit on the decline of the desiring-perception of value manifest as price. Sometimes this is linked to mathematical production; much of the time it is linked only to the fluctuation of perception.
NRIII
-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of Doug Henwood Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2006 2:52 PM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Primitive accumulation - Harvey on Marx
On Dec 10, 2006, at 1:28 PM, Patrick Bond wrote:
> Yes, quite significant ways of deriving profits are occurring away
> from the point of production,
Where do they come from? Thin air? How can the system as a whole conjure value merely out of exchanging virtual titles to wealth? The profits of financiers come ultimately from interest and fees paid by business and consumer debtors, even if there are countless steps between producers & reciipents.
Many of the examples you cite are of stocks of capitalized income flows, not the flows themselves. But if those are to be converted into actual cash, then the cash has to come from incomes derived (by capital or labor) from the production of goods & services. And what would all those profits mean if they couldn't be converted into actual consumer or investment goods?
There's something a little retro and moralizing about the prominence accorded p.a. in your & Harvey's analyses that wants to look away from actual production and focus instead on "gambling" and "parasitism."
Doug ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk