[lbo-talk] on the transformation problem

Shane Mage shmage at pipeline.com
Wed Jul 21 13:51:42 PDT 2010


On Jul 21, 2010, at 4:04 PM, Julio Huato wrote:
> ...But I can say with absoluteconfidence that, as a thinker, as a
> critic of political economy, Marxwas *deeply* interested in
> understanding prices and their changes.
>
Perhaps. But, nonetheless, isn't it the case that all the significant theorizing about monopoly and oligopoly pricing (even Sweezy's "kinked demand curve") has taken place on an entirely Marshallian basis? And where is Marx's theory of secular change (inflation/deflation) in the price level? Isn't it rather the case that Marx's deep interest was not in prices at all, but rather in the laws of motion of the capitalist mode of production and most especially in the "Law of the Falling Tendency of the Rate of Profit" and its effects?"
>
> In addition: Should we be interested in price dynamics? Does our
> struggle benefit from a sharper understanding of price dynamics?

Of course we should--within the context of those laws of motion and their concrete *present* manifestations.

Shane Mage

"All things are an equal exchange for fire and fire for all things, as goods are for gold and gold for goods."

Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr, 90



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