Table of Contents Guglielmo Carchedi-1992-Frontiers of Political Economy Contents Foreword 1 A Few Words on Method 1.1 An Example 1.2 Some Basic Concepts Notes 2 Production as a Social Process 2.1 Marx’s Analysis of the Production Process 2.1.1 The capitalist production process 2.1.2 The origin of surplus value 2.1.3 Social and technical division of labour 2.2 Braverman and the Labour Process Debate 2.3 Elements of a Theory of Material and Mental Labour^8 2.3.1 Material and mental transformations as conceptual building blocks of labour 2.3.2 What are material and mental labour processes? 2.3.3 How can we recognize material and mental labour processes? 2.3.4 What is material and mental labour? 2.4 The Dialectics of the Production of Value 2.4.1 Productive and unproductive labour processes 2.4.2 Productive and unproductive labourers 2.5 Agents of Production and Classes under Modern Capitalism 2.5.1 Ownership relations 2.5.2 Production relations 2.5.3 Class relations 2.6 The Social Production of Knowledge 2.6.1 Social knowledge and social classes 2.6.2 Natural and social sciences 2.6.3 Trans-epochal and trans-class elements of knowledge Notes 3 Social Distribution through Price Formation 3.1 Individual and Social Values: Preliminary Remarks 3.2 Market Values 3.2.1 Productivity and organic composition of capital 3.2.2 The tendency of the OCC to rise 3.2.3 Technological competition and modal techniques 3.2.4 The market value as a tendential concept 3.2.5 The computation of the market value 3.2.6 Weak and strong demand 3.2.7 The market value defined 3.2.8 Market value and transfer of value 3.3 Production Prices without Technological Competition 3.3.1 Producttvity, capital movements and profitability 3.3.2 The price of production: first approximation 3.3.3 Unequal exchange: first approximation 3.3.4 Which real situations do market values and prices of production tendentially depict? 3.4 Production Prices with Technological Competition 3.4.1 Modal capitals and the average rate of profit 3.4.2 The price of production: second approximation 3.4.3 Unequal exchange: second approximation 3.4.4 Technological change and price changes 3.4.5 Nine important aspects of the model 3.4.6 Capital movement and partial external exchange 3.5 The Dynamics of the Transformation Procedure 3.6 The Transformatton Debate 3.6.1 The circularity critique 3.6.2 The fallacy of the circularity critique 3.6.3 The infinite regression critique 3.6.4 A last misunderstanding 3.7 The Complete Notion of Production Price 3.7.1 Individual and social values 3.7.2 Two common misunderstandings 3.7.3 What is value? 3.7.4 Production price and socially necessary labour time 3.7.5 Value and full automation 3.8 Some Further Aspects of a Marxist Theory of Prices 3.8.1 Production prices and purchasing power 3.8.2 Production prices and absolute values 3.8.3 Produciton prices and capital used 3.8.4 Production prices and simple reproductton 3.8.5 Production prices and expanded reproduction 3.8.6 Production prices and luxuries 3.8.7 Production prices and rates of exploitation^13 3.8.8 The two components of UE 3.9 The Law of Value in the National Context Notes 4 Recent Controversies on the Law of Value 4.1 The Formation and Distribution of Value 4.1.1 Prices are determined by chance, not by abstract labour 4.1.2 Prices can be determined by abstract labour as well as by other qualities 4.1.3 Not all prices are determined by the socially necessary labour time 4.1.4 A specific case: labour power 4.2 The Reduction of Skilled to Unskilled Labour 4.2.1 The value of an agent's labour power and deskilling 4.2.2 Labour homogenizatton and wage equalization 4.3 Joint Production 4.3.1 The Marxist approach to joint production 4.3.2 The neo-Ricardian approach to joint production 4.4 Destruction of Value^7 4.4.1 Wasted labour 4.4.2 Value-destroying labour 4.4.3 Technical obsolescence 4.5 Okishio and the Fall in the Rate of Profit 4.6 Productivity, Exploitation and Redistributton of Value 4.6.1 Productivity and exploitation 4.6.2 Exploitation and redistribution of value 4.6.3 Productivity, exploitation and the rate of profit 4.7 Abstract Labour versus Standard of Value 4.7.1 Ricardo's measurement problem 4.7.2 The neo-Ricardian measurement problem Notes 5 Growth, Crises, Inflation and Crashes 5.1 The Fall in the Rate of Profit: Cause and Nature 5.1.1 The ultimate cause of crises 5.1.2 The two determinants of the rate of profit 5.1.3 The tendential nature of the fall of the profit rate 5.2 The Fall in the Rate of Profit, Crises of Profitability and of Realization^5 5.3 Crises, Inflation and Stagflation 5.3.1 Marx's critique of the quantity theory of money^6 5.3.2 Crises and quanttiy of money 5.3.3 Crises and inflation 5.3.4 Crises and stagflation 5.3.5 The way out of the crisis 5.3.6 Has capitalism overcome the crisis of realization? 5.4 Alternative Marxist Interpretations of Crises 5.4.1 The disproportionaliiy thesis 5.4.2 The Marxist underconsumptionist thesis 5.4.3 Disproportions, underconsumption and decreasing production of value 5.4.4 The Monthly Review school 5.4.5 The regulation theory^24 5.4.6 The profit squeeze theory 5.5 The Cyclical Nature of Production Crises 5.5.1 Long waves and production cycles 5.5.2 The cyclical pattern 5.5.3 Anti-cyclical measures: management of private demand 5.5.4 Anti-cyclical measures: government-induced production of weapons 5.5.5 Is the production of weapons productive of value? 5.5.6 Is the production of weapons an effective anti-cyclical device? 5.5.7 Is the productton of weapons inflationary? 5.5.8 Demand management and value theory 5.6 Financial Crises and Stock Exchange Crashes 5.6.1 Corporate debt and financial crises 5.6.2 Public debt and the financial crisis of the state 5.6.3 The stock exchange and crashes 5.7 The Fallacy of the Multiplier Notes 6 (Neo-)Ricardian and (Neo-)Marxist Views of International Prices, Specialization and Exploitation 6.1 Ricardo and Comparattve Advantages 6.2 Marx on International Market Values 6.3 Emmanuel's "Narrow” Unequal Exchange 6.4 The Neo-Ricardian Production Prices and Unequal Exchange Notes 7 Production and Distribution as Worldwide Processes 7.1 Oligopoly Capitalism versus Free Competition Capitallsm 7.1.1 Modern oligopolies and free competition capitals 7.1.2 Oligopolies and the equalization of the rates of profit 7.2 The International Equalization of Oligopolistic Profit Rates 7.2.1 International technological competition 7.2.2 International capital mobility 7.3 International Wage Zones 7.4 International Production Prices in Value Terms 7.5 Rates of Exchange and International Production Prices in Money Terms 7.5.1 Realized and tendential rates of exchange 7.5.2 National and international production prices in money terms 7.5.3 Two alternative views of exchange rates 7.6 Depreciation and Appreciation 7.6.1 Depreciation, appreciation and technological competition 7.6.2 Rates of exchange and gold 7.6.3 International UE, rate of exchange and balance of trade 7.6.4 Concluding remarks 7.7 Unequal Exchange between Capitalist and Non-capitalist Systems 7.8 International (Super-)Exploitation 7.9 Exploitation, Inflation and Rates of Exchange in the Dominated Notes 8 Two Contemporary Problems 8.1 International Production Prices and the Current Monetary Crisis 8.1.1 The causes of the present monetary crisis 8.1.2 A concice history of the crisis of the dollar 8.1.3 The crisis of the dollar and the European Monetary System^12 8.2 Is the Theory of Comparative Advantages Compatible with Socialist Development?^13 8.2.1 Comparative advantages' "rational kernel" 8.2.2 What kind of rationality? 8.2.3 Concluding remarks Notes Appendix: The Method of Social Research A. Dialectics A.1 Determination in the last instance A.2 Concrete realization A.3 Dialectical relation A.4 Dialectical movement A.5 Dialectics A.6 Real versus analytical changes B. Laws and Tendencies B.1 Tendencies and counter-tendencies B.2 Present and future tendencies B.3 Three types of present tendencies B.4 Dialectical versus mathematical thinking B.5 Tendency and verification B.6 Static and dynamic analysis Notes Bibliography Index