Paul Zarembka - Böcker

This work provides articles advancing the theoretical understanding of modern capitalism, including comparing post-Keynesian and Marxian conceptions of the endogenity of money, periodizing stages of capitalism, and understanding what "growth" means precisely beyond its common representations around gross domestic product. The economic theory of crises in capitalism is also explored theoretically and applied to the cases of Australia, France and Sweden in different time periods. The volume concludes with a symposium on applying cost theory to understanding the direction of the rate of profit in capitalism, starting from the well-known work of the Japanese economist Okishio.

This volume begins with an introduction to Marx's theory of capitalism in his own words, with his examples modernized from use of shillings and pence as subdivisions of the Pound. Well-known 1901 work on the theory of crises in capitalism by Michael Tugan-Baranowsky is translated into English for the first time, with a Preface placing it in context. The political activism and theoretical work of Henryk Grossman through 1926 is summarized in some detail, and a rarely-known brief article of his from 1919 included. Ambiguity in Marx's definition of accumulation of capital and the differing directions Lenin and Luxemburg took with it are next analyzed, with a more precise definition offered. Debate, begun in the last volume, over the valuation of means of production and its effect on the possibility of a falling tendency of the profit rate is taken a step forward as contrasting positions are developed. Finally, credit money as an advanced form of money is analyzed and the post-Keynesian analysis of it, originating from Kaldor, subject to critique. Several theories of inflation theory are reviewed, with focus on the agencies causing inflation. A rediscovery of Marxian inflation theory is proposed.

This volume of Research in Political Economy sets out to explore three key themes pertinent to the critique of political economy: (1) the disciplinary role of capital under neoliberalism, (2) accumulation and finance, and (3) the life and theories of Rosa Luxemburg. While the sections focus on different aspects of political economy, taken as a whole, they complement each other in striking a balance between concrete and abstract Marxist analyses. The essays in the first section critically examines the more concrete aspects of political economy, such as the changing role of the World Bank vis-a-vis the Third World, the Millennium Challenge Account - a newly forged 'official development compact' put forward by the Bush II administration, the disciplinary strategies tied to labour restructuring in Argentina, the political economy of financial fragility on a global scale, and a cultural critique of the Documenta11. The essays in the second section explore analytically dimensions of Marx's theory of the monetary circuit, Rudolf Hilferding's banking theory, Henryk Grossman's Law of Accumulation, and the evidence surrounding supposed value-price correlations. The articles in the third section of the volume are devoted to the person and theoretical contribution of Rosa Luxemburg, the famous Polish-German theoretician and revolutionary leader.

The leading part of this volume focuses on the role of the state in capitalist society, beginning by showing the welfare state as an historical product of the class structure of English agrarian capitalism. The second chapter indicates how, in European colonies such as in Africa, taxation was an important means of forcing indigenous populations to work as wage-laborers or produce cash crops, and relating the process to Marx's 'primitive accumulation of capital'. The following two chapters move to the contemporary period, the first suggesting that change in the relationship between the nation-state and capital is rooted in the contradictory needs of labor versus capital, while the next chapter proposes analyzing capitalist institutions by relying, more than hitherto, on an hermeneutic understanding of institutions. The following part addresses price and technical choice in capitalism. The first two chapters address price, the initial one suggesting its formation to be the same as the formation of abstract labor, while the second identifying a new category of exchange value and using it to explain how changes in demand act to redistribute value across industries. The following two chapters consider, empirically, the relation between technical choice and profit rates. The third part addresses economic democracy within socialism, defending both direct democracy and economic calculation in terms of labor time. The concluding part develops an understanding of the class determination of knowledge, including explaining why the science and techniques developed in one class society can be used in others.

This important volume brings together rigorous scholarship on the events of 9-11-2001, and assesses whether the truth has been told by the U.S. government. The lead chapter shows that eleven of FBI-named Arabic hijackers could not have been on the planes, while the Dulles airport videotape - essentially being the case that hijackers boarded flights - has very serious authentication problems. The next three chapters examine insider trading beforehand and the 9-11 flights themselves, then the evidence - based partly upon newly-released reports of more than 500 firefighters - permitting a conclusion that three buildings in the WTC complex were brought down by demolition, followed by discussion of scheduled military drills which confused standard operating procedures, and concluding with a surprising connection to the death of Senator Wellstone, leading critique of the Bush administration. The third part opens with a chapter examining the connection between Al-Qaeda and Western covert operations, showing how Al-Qaeda is inseparably connected to the latter. The following chapter shows that Machiavellian state terrorism is rather common and not at all unlikely for 9-11, while the following examines how the 9-11 Commission wrote its own history, rather than reporting and analyzing true history. The rise of Islamophobia as an ideological force to sustain U.S. imperialism is then introduced. The final chapter, while not explicit, offers a possible connection to the process of undermining pensions in the U.K. The volume can be seen as a definitive, scholarly explanation of 9-11 as a world-changing event.

The research is founded on analyzing society in a manner consistent with classical Marxism. International in scope, the annual volumes deal primarily with economic and political issues and the unity between them. Both theoretical and empirical works are included. While published papers must be appropriate for developing class analysis of society, they need not be explicitly Marxist. The 24th volume in the series focuses on Latin America. This book series is available electronically at website.

This volume focuses on nationality's efficacy in much of world affairs, and on the background and current issues surrounding global crisis. As one of the most famous Marxist revolutionaries, Rosa Luxemburg vigorously promoted her own conceptions, often opposing Lenin, her contemporary. In this volume, Narihiko Ito offers a much needed, extensive analysis of her position. This is followed by a critique of the current Iranian conjuncture, offered by Farhang Morady. The development of crises in capitalism is addressed both directly and indirectly within the volume. The volume continues with Karen Petersen's analysis of the post-WWII developments of major currencies. Restoring the concept of freedom within the current crisis, Alan Freeman argues the need to extricate French positivism from the Marxism that developed after Marx. Radhika Desai highlights renewed consideration of the major role of consumption demand in Marxist theory and considers implications for the current crisis. Paul Zarembka extends, theoretically and empirically, Marx's analysis of long-term capitalist accumulation and shows that merely 10-15 percent of surplus value has been needed for the accumulation occurring over the past 150 years. The final chapter by Jorgen Sandemose presents a careful argument offering notions of the origins of Marx's Capital. His chapter culminates in an engaging volume that addresses The National Question and the Question of Crisis.

This innovative book hones in on key elements of Marx's vast oeuvre, focusing on his contribution to social theory. Themes addressed include: the declining utility of Hegelian philosophy for Marx, his deepening confrontation with Ricardian political economy, Engels’ distorting impact on the publication of Capital, the place of the accumulation of capital, and especially of ‘primitive accumulation’, in Marx’s thought, and more. Extending beyond an analysis of the writing of Marx himself, Zarembka highlights the contributions of Rosa Luxemburg in the realms of political economy and nationalism and closes the book with a consideration of state conspiracies.

As a few alert mainstream and corporate economists rediscover the certain elements of Marx's analysis of capitalism, the essays in the first part of this volume demonstrate that they have far to go. To their discredit, mainstream understandings whether of capitalism's growth or of Western capitalism's interrelated long-term stagnation and financialization are derailed precisely by political aversion to, or ignorance of, Marxist categories and analyses. The chapters in the second part extend Marxist insights into assessing the value of the so-called information, or knowledge-based, commodities, and offer a Marxist critique of Lenin, the only world leader who earlier had deeply studied his own country's economy. The part also presents two important works in translation. The first, read in Russian by Marx himself, raises serious questions about the relevance of Hegel in the understanding of Capital and offers its own insightful analysis. The other, by a Marxist collective in the 1970s demonstrates the centrality of politics and the class struggle in the simplistically conceived economic devalorization of constant capital. The final part contains a debate on the merits of positivist Marxism sparked by an article in Volume 26 of this research series.

This volume analyzes two decisive factors that have become embedded in the world spread of capitalism, a shift toward dominance of the financial sector, now entailing massive greed and calling into question whether the 'rules' of capitalism have been broken, and of global wage differentials so deep that recognition of a labor aristocracy cannot be avoided. These chapters are supplemented by two additional showing that gold still regulates the dollar's value, and that unpaid reproductive labor of women adversely affects labor productivity. Analysis of finance engenders discussion of its place in value theory, posed around the rate of profit, and is more complex than often presented. Furthermore, the varying rates of profit at the firm level, not just for financials, are distributed in a manner exhibiting more frequent extreme cases than a Bell-curve would suggest. Implications for incorporation of randomization into political economy are drawn. The final chapters provide evidence that Marx was more correct than Kalecki and Minsky when arguing the lead of profits for investment, and that product innovations can mitigate problems of over-production resulting from process innovations.

This volume examines the recent advance of neoliberalism. The volume begins with a very extensive study of the archives of Piero Sraffa, which suggests the importance of Marx's influence on his work. The following chapters address the recent multifaceted advance of neoliberalism, with a focus on three current instances. Firstly, suggesting uneven development as in Rosa Luxemburg. South African multi-billion dollar investments in two fossil-fuel projects have recently cemented debtor relations to the World Bank and the Chinese Development Bank, while generating activist opposition in this era of climate crisis. A second instance focuses on secondary school teachers in England whose work load is not only increasing but also increasingly commodified and judged, a development that represents the penetration of abstract labor and alienation, as in Marx. The third example examines the credit bubbles in Greece, noting them as an example of the progency of fictitious capital. The remaining chapters include a critique of Althusser's interpretation of the Marxist philosophy of science, and a continued discussion regarding the concept of a labor aristocracy, engaging the work of Zak Cope.

Only after World War II did scholars move to theorize the distinction between the core countries at the center of capitalism and peripheral countries, often with an added distinction to include the semi-peripheral. Immanuel Wallerstein's World Systems approach has been particularly important and led the term periphery into common scholarly parlance. Not surprisingly, much work remains to be done to untangle the extreme diversity and complexity of the political economies and resistances against the multidimensional cruelties perpetrated in the world’s many, very different peripheral contexts.  Class History and Class Practices in the Periphery of Capitalism addresses this need head-on. A first chapter lays a theoretical groundwork by showing that Marx, in his later life, became aware that historical developments are much more complicated than he originally conceived them to be, and he was not as far away from calling for site-specific analyses. Contributions here carry out just such analyses: they describe specificities for Russia, Portugal, Argentina, and Mexico, offer broader perspectives on post-hegemonic Latin America and Asia, provide detailed analyses of resistances across Africa, and reflect on the deeper meaning of neozapatismo for promoting a shift in the entire terrain of discussion.  Rich in theoretical depth and empirical rigor, and supplemented by an out-of-the-archive translation of Karl Katusky's theory of crises, this book is essential reading for students and scholars of political economy and international political economy, and it is of keen interest to anyone working to resist specific capitalist exploitations in their own place and time.

The book, authored in the main by Simon Stander and true to the interdisciplinary nature of political economy, focuses attention on why capitalism survives crises by developing the novel argument that it has moved on from its 19th century embodiment to include a class of shock absorbers. This class, consisting of fractionalised individuals, absorbs the massive surpluses of produced commodities while buffering capitalism against the declines of values during crises of the financial system. This gives rise to Reformism, rather than class conflict, which becomes a central feature in the political arena. The absorptive class in its dialectical relationship to the other two major classes, capitalist and working class, is vital for this reformist tendency; in this context consideration of the individual in a narcissistic social environment also becomes a focus of attention. With its distinct importance, the absorptive class helps glue capitalist economy and state together, and this provides an understanding of the contradiction between the need for a 'big' state in the interest of the absorption of commodities and the 'small state' in the interest of efficient resource allocation and profit. The second portion of the volume considers the application and conceptualization of the value theory by two leading academics in political economy and concludes with an exposition of the methodology differences between two important Japanese Marxian economists.