Capital’s humpback bridge: ‘financialisation’ and the rate of turnover in Marx’s economic theory

The article aims to shed light on the role played by the ‘rate of turnover’ of capital in Karl Marx’s economic theory. Oddly enough, such a concept has been neglected by the most part of Marx’s scholars and exegetes, as it is demonstrated by the small number of scientific works dealing with it. Yet, the rate of turnover is a key-category in Marxian analysis, as it enables Marx to address the impact of the improvement in finance and other unproductive industries on the capitalist process of creation (and realisation) of surplus-value. The evidence from the new philological edition of Marx and Engel’s writings (MEGA2) further strengthens this insight. The main goal of the paper is, therefore, threefold: first, to bridge the gap in the literature dealing with the Volume Two of Capital; second, to provide a re-definition of several Marxian concepts in the light of the role played by the rate of turnover of capital; third, to analyse the effect of the developments in the banking & finance industry on the turnover rate and, thereby, on the general rate of profit

Control of locomotion systems and dynamics in relative periodic orbits

The connection between the dynamics in relative periodic orbits of vector fields with noncompact symmetry groups and periodic control for the class of control systems on Lie groups known as `(robotic) locomotion systems' is well known, and has led to the identification of (geometric) phases. We take an approach which is complementary to the existing ones, advocating the relevance|for trajectory generation in these control systems|of the quali-tative properties of the dynamics in relative periodic orbits. There are two particularly important features. One is that motions in relative periodic orbits of noncompact groups can only be of two types: Either they are quasi-periodic, or they leave any compact set as t →±∞ (`drifting motions'). Moreover, in a given group, one of the two behaviours may be predominant. The second is that motions in a relative periodic orbit exhibit `spiralling', `meandering' behaviours, which are routinely detected in numerical integrations. Since a quantitative description of meandering behaviours for drifting motions appears to be missing, we provide it here for a class of Lie groups that includes those of interest in locomotion (semidirect products of a compact group and a normal vector space). We illustrate these ideas on some examples (a kinematic car robot, a planar swimmer)

From abstract to concrete: some tips to develop an empirical SFC model

The main purpose of this paper is to show how a simple (medium-scale) empirical stock–flow consistent dynamic model can be developed from scratch. Eurostat data and conventional statistical packages (notably EViews, Excel and R) are used. On the theoretical side, the work builds upon the pioneering work of Godley/Lavoie (2007). Sectoral transactions–flow matrices and balance sheets are explicitly modelled and their evolution over time under different scenarios is analysed. On the empirical side, the model draws upon the applied work of Burgess et al. (2016). The case of Italy is considered, but the model can be replicated for other countries. Eurostat annual data (from 1995 to 2016) are used to estimate or calibrate most model parameter values (for example, consumption function and housing investment parameters). Remaining parameters are borrowed from the available literature or taken from a range of realistic values (for example, weight on past errors in agents' expectations). The model is then used to impose and compare alternative scenarios for Italian sectoral financial balances, based on different shocks to government spending

Hand Gesture Recognition as Password to Open the Door with Camera and Convexity Defect Method

Computer Vision is one of reasearch that gets a lot of attention with many applications. One of the application is the hand gesture recognition system. By using EmguCV, will be obtained camera images from webcam camera. The Pictures will be disegmented by using skin detection method for decrease noises in order to obtain the information needed. The final project of this system is to implement the convexity defect method for extracting images and recognize patterns of hand gesture that represent the characters A, B, C, D, and E. The parameters used in pattern recognition of hand gesture is the number and length of the line connecting the hull and defects derived from the pattern of hand gesture

Moneta, finanza e crisi. Marx nel circuito monetario (Money, Finance and Crisis. Marx Within the Monetary Circuit)

The so-called "Theory of Monetary Circuit" not only represents an original Marxian rereading of Keynesian macroeconomic categories, but also provides an essential tool for the analysis (and the critique) of recent developments in capitalist economies, including the financialization process. Starting from a "circuitist" view, it is argued that the twin financial crises of 2000 and 2007 can be regarded as the "friction points" of the law of creation of value and surplus value (that still relies on the extension and intensification of the exploitation of the living labor in the production sphere) with the private realization of value created (i.e. the historically determined way of setting relative prices, including return rates on financial assets) under current financially sophisticated capitalist economies

A Marx ‘crises’ model. The reproduction schemes revisited

This chapter builds upon the Marxian reproduction schemes. It aims to test the impact of some of the most apparent ‘stylised facts’ which characterise the current phase of capitalism on an artificial two-sector growing economy. It is shown that, simplified though they are, the Marxian reproduction schemes allow for the framing of a variety of radical and other ‘dissenting’ renditions of the recent economic and financial crises of early industrialised countries with a flexible and sound analytical model

Welfare, mercato e piano. Critica del paradigma liberoscambista (Welfare State, Free Market and the Economic Planning. Critique to the Neoliberal Paradigm)

In this article it is argued that the opposition "welfare or barbarism" is historically linked to the degree of globalization of advanced economies. It is also argued that the current trend is not the zeroing of the welfare state, but a radical re-definition of it along both "universalist" and "minimalist" lines. In fact, welfare state programmes are being reduced to a unique residual monetary benefit, whose function is to bridge the gap between the actual real wage and the minimum subsistence threshold of the working class. Against this background, the article provides a radical critique to the unconditional, and sometimes apologetic, acceptance of capitalist globalization and of its ideological superstructure, namely, the neo-liberal agenda. In addition, a different idea of the organisation of the economy is proposed, recovering and updating the concept of the "economic planning"