On 3/5/2011 10:46 AM, Wojtek S wrote:
> [WS:] But that is exactly what Brenner argues. Contrary to what Brad
> claims, Brenner shows a secular decline in mfg profit rates (i.e.
> surplus value/capital invested) in the time period preceding
> financialization (1950s to 1970s) - and argues that financialization
> that started in the late 1970s and 1980s was the capital's solution to
> this systemic problem of falling rates.
There's also another possibility: that the decline in the profitability of left-wing politics in the 1970's created incentives for the left to invest in financialization arguments, resulting in the subsequent Fitch-Brenner boom of the 1990's and 2000's.
SA