Value and Crisis: Essays on Labour, Money and Contemporary Capitalism

374 Pages·2019·3.77 MB·English

by  Alfredo Saad Filho

Value and Crisis
<<UUNN>>
Studies in
Critical Social Sciences
Series Editor
David Fasenfest (Wayne State University)
Editorial Board
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva (Duke University)
Chris Chase-Dunn (University of California-Riverside)
William Carroll (University of Victoria)
Raewyn Connell (University of Sydney)
Kimberle W. Crenshaw (University of California, la, and
Columbia University)
Raju Das (York University)
Heidi Gottfried (Wayne State University)
Karin Gottschall (University of Bremen)
Alfredo Saad-Filho (University of London)
Chizuko Ueno (University of Tokyo)
Sylvia Walby (Lancaster University)
volume 134
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/scss
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Value and Crisis
Essays on Labour, Money and
Contemporary Capitalism
By
Alfredo Saad-Filho
leiden | boston
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Saad-Filho, Alfredo, 1964- author.
Title: Value and crisis : essays on labour, money and contemporary capitalism
/ by Alfredo Saad-Filho.
Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2019] | Series: Studies in critical
social sciences ; 134 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2018059460 (print) | lccn 2019001812 (ebook) | isbn
9789004393202 (E-book) | isbn 9789004349803 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Marxian economics. | Value. | Labor. | Money. | Capitalism.
Classification: lcc hb97.5 (ebook) | lcc HB97.5 .s183 2019 (print) | ddc
335.4/12--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018059460
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
ISSN 1573-4234
ISBN 978-90-04-34980-3 (hardback)
ISBN 978-90-04-39320-2 (e-book)
Copyright 2019 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi,
Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
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910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change.
This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.
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Contents
Acknowledgements  ix
Introduction  1
1 Method  2
2 The Theory of Value  3
3 Systems of Accumulation  6
4 Neoliberalism  7
5 Outline of the Book  10
Part 1
Essays on the Theory of Value
1 Marxist Economics  15
1 The Method and Approach of Marxist Political Economy  16
2 The Labour Theory of Value  18
3 Commodities, Labour and Value  20
4 Capital and Capitalism  22
5 From Value to Surplus Value  24
6 Profit and (Increasing) Exploitation  26
7 Marxist Political Economy, Laws of Development and
Contemporary Capitalism  28
8 Conclusion  28
2 The Relevance of Marx’s Theory of Value  31
1 Interpretations of Marx’s Theory of Value  32
2 Value Theory and Class Analysis  44
3 Conclusion  65
3 Labour, Money and ‘Labour-Money’: A Review of Marx’s Critique of
John Gray’s Monetary Analysis  67
1 Labour, Money, Exploitation  68
2 Marx on Labour and Money  71
3 Money, Value, and Price  75
4 The Other Functions of Money  78
5 Labour-Money in Retrospect  81
6 Conclusion  83
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vi Contents
4 Capital Accumulation and the Composition of Capital  84
1 Capital and Exploitation  85
2 Understanding the Composition of Capital  89
3 Production and the Composition of Capital  91
4 Capital Accumulation  97
5 Conclusion  99
5 The ‘Transformation Problem’  101
1 The ‘Problem’  102
2 Alternative Interpretations  105
3 Marx’s Transformation: A Review  109
4 The Transformation and its Method  114
5 Conclusion  115
6 Transforming the Transformation Problem: Why the ‘New
Interpretation’ is a Wrong Turning  118
1 The ‘New Interpretation’: A Simple Formal Presentation  120
2 Value of Money  122
3 Value of Labour Power  127
4 Structure, Sequence and Dynamics  131
5 Conclusion  135
7 The Supply of Credit Money and Capital Accumulation: A Critical
View of Post-Keynesian Analysis  138
1 The Fundamental Process of Endogenous Money Creation  139
2 Commodity and Credit Money Systems  142
3 Money and Inflation  144
4 Two Steps Forward – One Step Back  146
5 Conclusion: What is Important for the Way Ahead?  159
8 Inflation Theory: A Critical Literature Review and a New Research
Agenda  162
1 Conflict and Inflation  164
2 Monopolies, Underconsumption, and Inflation  169
3 Credit, Extra Money, and Inflation  172
4 Conclusion  182
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Contents vii
Part 2
Essays on Contemporary Capitalism
9 Anti-Capitalism: A Marxist Introduction  187
1 Capitalism and Anti-Capitalism  187
2 September 11 and Beyond  191
3 Four Pressing Issues  192
4 The Way Ahead  204
5 Leaving Capitalism Behind  205
10 Neoliberalism  207
1 Neoliberal Ideas  208
2 Policy Shifts and Institutional Changes  210
3 Classes and Class Struggle  212
4 Neoliberalism, Financialisation and Globalisation  213
5 Contradictions and Limitations  215
11 Thirteen Things You Need to Know About Neoliberalism  218
1 A New Stage  219
2 An Ideology?  222
3 A Reaction?  224
4 Markets and States  226
5 Financialisation  227
6 Policy Changes  230
7 The Balance of Power  231
8 Scholarship, Policy and Practice  234
9 Two Phases  235
10 Variegated Neoliberalism  236
11 Everyday life  239
12 Growth, Volatility and Crises  241
13 Alternatives  242
12 Democracy against Neoliberalism  244
1 Capitalism and Democracy  247
2 Democracy in the Age of Neoliberalism  252
3 The Limitations of Neoliberal Democracy  256
4 Economic and Political Imbalances  257
5 Globalism and (Nation-)States  259
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viii Contents
6 New Authoritarianism  260
7 Transcending Neoliberalism through Radical Democracy  261
8 Conclusion  266
13 Monetary Policy and Neoliberalism  269
1 Monetary Policy for Mature Neoliberalism  270
2 Inflation Targeting and Central Bank Independence  272
3 The New Monetary Policy Consensus in Practice  274
4 The Performance of Inflation-Targeting Regime and Central
Bank Independence  277
5 Costs of the New Monetary Policy Consensus  278
6 The Impact of the Global Crisis  283
7 Conclusion  286
14 Neoliberal Development and Its Critics  289
1 Neoliberalism and Its Critics  289
2 Neoliberalism and Development  293
3 Neoliberalism, Politics and Development  298
4 Conclusion  300
15 Crisis in Neoliberalism or Crisis of  Neoliberalism?  302
1 Neoliberalism and Financialisation  302
2 Financialisation and Social Discipline  305
3 Neoliberalism’s Contradictions  308
4 Not Moving Forward  310
5 Coming Out of Left Field  314
References  319
Index  349
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Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Marco di Tommaso and his colleagues at the University of
Ferrara, who welcomed me generously during the final stages of preparation
of this book. I am especially thankful to David Fasenfest for his friendship and
continuing support. This book would not have been possible without him.
This book is for Lucas and Julia, with love.
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