CRITIQUE OF A RECENT PAPER PUBLISHED IN HISTORICAL MATERIALISM ON THE TRANSFORMATION PROBLEM

I sense that Marx’s Transformation Problem found in Chapter 9 of Volume 3 is going to get more of an airing as today’s growing storms pummel capitalism. The Transformation Problem or the understanding of how value is converted into price via the movement of capital is central to the law of value, and answering it, is central to defending the law of value. The transformation problem has been the graveyard for many theorists who have sought to assist Marx, by either re-interpreting him, or rendering him more profound or by seeking to bury the real problem by substituting a non-problem. Like helpful D.I.Y. bodgers they have ended up devaluing the house that Marx and Engels built. The paper being critiqued has once again misinterpreted Marx. What my Critique also does is to introduce what has not been considered before, something novel in the Marxist lexicon, the difference between complicated systems and complex systems, something which capitalist corporations have to grapple with every day. By showing that capitalism is a complicated and not a complex system, this critique establishes that the relation between value and price can be determined, something which the authors disallow.