Matthias Wasser <matthias.wasser at gmail.com>wrote:
> I'm worse than a newbie at this, but with all the recent talk of Marxology
> and value theory, it seems like an apt time to ask.
I've struggled with the transformation problem as well and I hope to read a few responses to this post - ideally another illuminating argument ;] (I too am worse than a newbie and I am quite certain I have nothing useful to add to the topic).
Joshua
^^^^^^^ CB: Andrew Kliman is a contemporary Marxist famous for grappling with this issue.
Marx's "transformation" made easy
Issue: 115 Posted: 2 July 07 Joseph Choonara Andrew Kliman, Reclaiming Marx’s “Capital”: A Refutation of the Myth of Inconsistency (Lexington, 2007), £17.99
Since the publication of the third volume of Capital in 1894 Karl Marx’s analysis has suffered at the hands not simply of those who openly oppose Marxism, but also of those who claim to stand in his tradition. Two key planks of Marx’s work have been challenged. The first is the “law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall”. The second is Marx’s solution to what has become known as the “transformation problem”—the shift from the analysis of “values” in the first volume of Capital to the analysis of “prices” in the third.
Andrew Kliman’s book answers Marx’s critics new and old. Setting aside the question of whether Marx’s ideas are right or wrong, Kliman argues that Capital can, and should, be interpreted in such a way as to render it “internally consistent”. Only by following this method can a sensible interpretation be constructed and tested against reality. Kliman’s book sets out one such interpretation of Capital, which satisfies this criterion. All this is done with admirable clarity, in stark contrast to most of the literature on “value theory”.
http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=353&issue=115