THEPLANNINGMOTIVE.COM

BREXIT: AN OVEN READY DEAL OR WAS THE OVEN EVEN SWITCHED ON. Populism in disarray.

A PRESIDENT AND STOCK MARKETS ON STEROIDS.

Populist leaders are like sparklers. They burn bright, furiously and then go out. The specter of Trump losing office fills fellow populist leaders around the world, like Bolsonaro and Modi, with dread. We are entering a new historical period, rich in promise and peril.

TURNOVER IN QUARTER 2. A REVELATION.

WHY THE TRAJECTORY OF THE RATE OF PROFIT IS PARABOLIC, AND, WHY WE NEED TO MOVE ON.

THE FED IS AWARE THE RATE OF PROFIT IS FALLING, SO WHY DO BOURGEOIS ACADEMICS CONTINUE TO DENY IT?

In a recent posting analysing the rate of profit between 1980 and 2019, written under the influence of mild seasonal flu, I inadvertently used corporate profit figures rather than non-financial corporate figures. Both the article and spreadsheet have now been corrected. If you have already read this article it may be worthwhile to reread it as the corrected data strengthens the conclusions found there.

SPLITTING THE STREAM OF SURPLUS VALUE IS KEY TO RESOLVING THE TRANSFORMATION PROBLEM.

Resolving the transformation problem set out by Karl Marx in Chapter 9 of Volume 3 of Das Kapital is the supreme challenge facing Marxian theory. Without such a resolution, the labour theory of value cannot be defended. Many attempts have been made to resolve this issue over the years, and in attempting to do so, the transformation problem has become the reputational graveyard for many, especially those who sought to reinterpret Marx or render him more profound. Like DIY bodgers trying to improve the house that Marx and Engels built, their shoddy workmanship has only served to devalue this house.

This article provides a novel approach to the resolution of the transformation problem. It reformulates “prices of production” to be those prices which yield an average rate of profit, not on the original capital, but on the newly priced capital. This categorisation sets the requirement to split the stream of surplus value needed to equalise profits into two, one to reprice capital, and the other, to adjust profits, so that the newly adjusted profit earns an average rate of profit when measured against the newly priced capital.

Historically, this is the first time this twin allocation has been done, and until it was done, it was impossible to resolve the transformation problem. I submitted this article to Historical Materialism for publication but it was rejected because of its “complexity”. The irony is that this article provides the simple key needed to unlock the transformation problem, the splitting of the stream of redistributed surplus value into its two components.

For ease of explanation, I have divided the process of transforming value into price into a number of steps.

US RATES OF PROFIT 1980 – 2019.

I would like to apologise to my readers. Writing a complex post whilst under the influence of mild seasonal flu is never a good idea. As a result I inadvertently used corporate profit data derived from Table 1.14 rather than the intended non-financial corporate data. I have now replaced the defective article and worksheet with the corrected ones. The only damage has been to my pride. The corrected data are more supportive of my conclusions than the defective data used originally.

THE US RATE OF PROFIT IN Q2 FALLS TO POST-WAR LOW.

THE MEANING OF TRUE INTERNATIONALISM NOW AND IN THE FUTURE.

TURNOVER Q1 2020. SETTING A BASELINE BEFORE THE PANDEMIC.