Michael Perelman - Böcker

The history of capitalism has long been thought to be a sequence of recurring crises that appear in various forms: crises in employing people, crises in obtaining resources, and financial crises. Marx's Crises Theory: Scarcity, Labor, and Finance provides a framework for interpreting Marx's theory of crises. In conclusion, the author asserts that as long as the financial structure leads to periodic breakdowns, Marx's writings on the subject will retain their importance as a source of theory and analysis of the dynamics of political economy.

As Socialist states struggle to transform themselves into market economies and the United States privatizes everything from schooling to policing, the current crises in Russia and East Asia suggest that something might be amiss. In the rush to open societies to the benefits of competition, economists have overlooked the fundamental instability of competitive markets. What had seemed to be an invincible capitalist juggernaut may be reaching its apotheosis. A close look at market economies is more timely and crucial than ever. Michael Perelman argues that capitalism's victory is temporary, based as it is on an unrealistic understanding of the system's inherent risks. He analyzes the nature and causes of crisis within a market society, and along the way, he re-examines one of capitalism's most primary and unquestioned tenets, that the more competition there is, the better off society will be. This accessible book, garnished with plenty of examples and anecdotes, is an open-minded injection of common sense into the understanding of a capitalist society.

Despite Keynes' achievement in developing his theory of monetary economy, he failed to integrate some important real effects investment into his analysis. Specifically, he neglected the role of replacement investment, although his anticipations of the q-theory laid the groundwork for a theory of replacement investment. This book integrates Keynes' observations about the q-theory into a coherent theory of replacement investment. It demonstrates why, in the absence of a significant post-war depression, business was relieved of the need to replace obsolete capital goods, thereby leading the economy into a period of prolonged stagnation. Michael Perelman is the author of several books including "Karl Marx's Crisis Theory - Labor, Scarcity and Fictitious Capital".

This volume demonstrates the calamitous consequences of the US policies that follow a Haitian model of low-wage development. Michael Perelman makes his case by describing the decades-long unfolding of the crisis in the US economy following the post-war boom. From the beginning, the boom contained the seeds of its own destruction. As the boom disintegrated, attempts to stabilize the economy made matters even worse. Efforts at profit maximization reinforced the problems, for example, attacks on both labour and government reinforced the decline. This work warns against framing policies predicated upon either Keynesian or neo-classical theory, since both suffer from an unwarranted belief that a market economy can avoid crisis with appropriate management. Other works by the author include "Karl Marx's Crisis Theory", "Classical Political Economy", "Primitive Accumulation and the Social Division of Labour", "Farming for Profit in a Hungry World", "Keynes, Investment Theory and the Economic Slowdown" and "Information, Social Relations and the Economics of High Technology".

Corporate power has a huge impact on the rights and privileges of individuals -– as workers, consumers, and citizens. This book explores how the myth of individualism reinforces corporate power by making people perceive themselves as having choices, when in fact most peoples' options are very limited.Perelman describes the manufacture of unhappiness - the continual generation of dissatisfaction with products people are encouraged to purchase and quickly discard - and the complex techniques corporations employ to avoid responsibility and accountability to their workers, consumers and the environment. He outlines ways in which individuals can surpass individualism and instead work together to check the growing power of corporations. While other books have surveyed the corporate landscape, or decried modern consumerism, Perelman, a professor of economics, places these ideas within a proper economic and historical context. He explores the limits of corporate accountability and responsibility, and investigates the relation between a wide range of phenomena such as food, fear and terrorism.Highly readable, Manufacturing Discontent will appeal to anyone with an interest in the way society works - and what really determines the rights of individuals in a corporate society.

The originators of classical political economy-Adam Smith, David Ricardo, James Steuart, and others-created a discourse that explained the logic, the origin, and, in many respects, the essential rightness of capitalism. But, in the great texts of that discourse, these writers downplayed a crucial requirement for capitalism’s creation: For it to succeed, peasants would have to abandon their self-sufficient lifestyle and go to work for wages in a factory. Why would they willingly do this?Clearly, they did not go willingly. As Michael Perelman shows, they were forced into the factories with the active support of the same economists who were making theoretical claims for capitalism as a self-correcting mechanism that thrived without needing government intervention. Directly contradicting the laissez-faire principles they claimed to espouse, these men advocated government policies that deprived the peasantry of the means for self-provision in order to coerce these small farmers into wage labor. To show how Adam Smith and the other classical economists appear to have deliberately obscured the nature of the control of labor and how policies attacking the economic independence of the rural peasantry were essentially conceived to foster primitive accumulation, Perelman examines diaries, letters, and the more practical writings of the classical economists. He argues that these private and practical writings reveal the real intentions and goals of classical political economy-to separate a rural peasantry from their access to land.This rereading of the history of classical political economy sheds important light on the rise of capitalism to its present state of world dominance. Historians of political economy and Marxist thought will find that this book broadens their understanding of how capitalism took hold in the industrial age.

The originators of classical political economy-Adam Smith, David Ricardo, James Steuart, and others-created a discourse that explained the logic, the origin, and, in many respects, the essential rightness of capitalism. But, in the great texts of that discourse, these writers downplayed a crucial requirement for capitalism’s creation: For it to succeed, peasants would have to abandon their self-sufficient lifestyle and go to work for wages in a factory. Why would they willingly do this?Clearly, they did not go willingly. As Michael Perelman shows, they were forced into the factories with the active support of the same economists who were making theoretical claims for capitalism as a self-correcting mechanism that thrived without needing government intervention. Directly contradicting the laissez-faire principles they claimed to espouse, these men advocated government policies that deprived the peasantry of the means for self-provision in order to coerce these small farmers into wage labor. To show how Adam Smith and the other classical economists appear to have deliberately obscured the nature of the control of labor and how policies attacking the economic independence of the rural peasantry were essentially conceived to foster primitive accumulation, Perelman examines diaries, letters, and the more practical writings of the classical economists. He argues that these private and practical writings reveal the real intentions and goals of classical political economy-to separate a rural peasantry from their access to land.This rereading of the history of classical political economy sheds important light on the rise of capitalism to its present state of world dominance. Historians of political economy and Marxist thought will find that this book broadens their understanding of how capitalism took hold in the industrial age.

Most economic theory assumes a pure capitalism of perfect competition. Even when it is recognized that this does not exist, many politicians and captains of industry pay a great deal of lip service to the idea of the market. This book goes beyond the rhetoric to explore how, even in the United States, the most capitalist of all countries, the market has always been subjected to numerous constraints. As well as discussing the opinions of economists, the book looks at the opinions and practices of figures such as Henry Ford, J.P. Morgan, and Herbert Hoover.

A discussion of various types of capitalism and the evolution of the firm. The book examines the concept of the firm in the context of class conflict and considers markets as an impediment to economic process. Finally the book examines the use of computer software as a public good.

This book integrates Keynes' observations about the q-theory into a coherent theory of replacement investment. It demonstrates why, in the absence of a significant post-war depression, business was relieved of the need to replace obsolete capital goods, leading to a period of prolonged stagnation.

Classical Political Economy addresses the question of what determines the social division of labour, the division of society into independent firms and industries and develops the theoretical implications of primitive accumulation. It also offers a significantly different interpretation of classical political economy, demonstrating that this school of thought supported the process of primitive accumulation.Classical political economy presents an imposing facade. For more than two centuries, the accepted doctrine dictates that a market generates forces that provide the most efficient method for organising production. This laissez faire approach is an ideology that gives capital absolute freedom of action, and yet called for intervention to coerce people to do things that they would not otherwise do. Classical political economy therefore encouraged policies that would hinder people’s ability to produce for their own needs.Michael Perelman, however, in this innovative take on the subject, seeks to challenge the ideologies that would allow things to continue in this line unchecked.