UPDATED U.S. THIRD QUARTER DATA AND PROSPECTS FOR 2022.
December 30, 2021 4 Comments
The first download is the article and the following two are supporting spreadsheets. This article is based on releases by the BEA on the 22nd December of revised and additional data on the US economy.
THEPLANNINGMOTIVE.COM 
how wrist watches ccan compensate for real estate?
Exactly hence the sarcasm in my article.
You write: “Obtaining the rate of turnover makes it possible to convert the rate of exploitation into the rate of surplus value. This is done by converting annual wages into variable capital by dividing wages by annual turnovers. Thus the annual wage bill for manufacturing in 2019 was $920 billion while turnover was 3.92, yielding variable capital of $235 billion, a big difference”
Couple of questions: how do you account for the supplements to wages– medical insurance, retirement contributions, etc?
Second question: In your methodology the capital advanced to employ labor-power is satisfied in one period, then subsequent periods are essentially cost-free to the capitalist, or simply require the recirculation of the first advance that is returned with each turnover period, why not apply the same calculation to the other other components of constant, but circulating, capital, like raw materials, fuels, electricity, packaging, etc? That would reduce the outlay for c significantly (from about 5 trillion to about 1.25 trillion in the US with a great impact on the rate of profit. Why isn’t the turnover period applicable to the advance outlays made for all components of circulating capital?
Good points some of which go unobserved.
Point 1. I always, where possible use workers compensation, rather than wages for the reasons you underline. However, on a quarterly basis workers compensation is available only for corporations in NIPA Table 1.14. For industry, and then only the larger industries such as manufacturing, only wages are available. I focused on manufacturing this time for two reasons. To look at the structural changes in the world economy as the pandemic altered consumer preferences in favour of goods, i.e. manufactured goods. Secondly, to pave the way for the forthcoming article on China which has been the primary beneficiary of this shift. But well spotted, workers compensation divided by turnover forms variable capital not wages.
Point 2. Capital is always cost free to the capitalist class in the fundamental sense because it is a unpaid labour. So yes, once circulating capital is laid out it is reproduced by the worker who not only reimburses the employer for the variable capital laid out but provides the profits once this new labour is converted into cash through sale. (Of course other inputs are transferred to the selling price.) Thus the previous period of production once sold finances the next everything else being equal. The same can be said of fixed capital which spans many periods of circulating capital. Here depreciation forms a sinking fund so that by the time the fixed capital has exhausted its economic life, the capitalist has the funds to replace it so to speak, free of charge.
In sum, most Marxists use annual compensation for their calculations of surplus value, the composition of capital and the rate of profit which is wrong. Not only does this figure exceed variable capital by the number of turnovers, but because these turnovers accelerate or decelerate depending on the phasing of the business cycle they vary relatively as well.