Technology, Distribution and the Rate of Profit in the US Economy: Understanding the Current Crisis

This paper offers a synoptic account of the state of the debate within Marxist scholars regarding the current structural crisis of capitalism, identifies two broad streams within the literature dealing, in turn, with aggregate demand and profitability problems, and proceeds to concentrate on an analysis of issues surrounding the profitability problem in two steps. First, evidence on profitability trends for the Nonfarm Nonfinancial Corporate Business, the Nonfinancial Corporate Business and the Corporate Business sectors in post-War U.S. are summarized. A broad range of profit rate measures are covered and data from both the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (NIPA and Fixed Asset Tables) and the Federal Reserve (Flow of Funds Account) are used. Second, the underlying drivers of profitability, in terms of technology and distribution, are investigated. The profitability analysis is used to offer some hypotheses about the current structural crisis

Global Value Chains and Unequal Exchange: Market Power and Monopoly Power

We revisit the hypotheses of unequal exchange and deteriorating terms of trade in the specific context of import-intensive, export- led strategies of developing countries which rely on integration into GVCs for access to markets in developed countries using a stylized two-country two-commodity Classical- Marxian trade model. Two sources of asymmetry can be distinguished: market power arising from the competition between suppliers that depresses the prices at which the final good is supplied; and monopoly power arising from the lead firms control and ownership of intangible assets including brand and design. The model explores some implications of these two sources of asymmetry

Reforming the International Financial System: Core and Periphery Issues and the Dollar Standard

The floating dollar standard was rooted in the aggressive pursuit of liberalized financial markets and the asymmetric integration of countries in the periphery into the international financial system. The mechanism of generating international liquidity was buttressed by the concerted advocacy of trade and financial liberalization of developing countries in the interests of preserving dollar dominance. This had enabled fragility to be exported to the periphery through two and a half decades of growing US deficits, while at the same time imparting greater elasticity to the adjustment mechanisms in the core. The debates and negotiations around refashioning the global financial architecture in the wake of the current global crisis need to take these core –periphery issues into account.Financial Crisis, Financialization, Private Capital Flows, International Monetary Reform.

Financial intermediation and fragility: the role of the periphery

A peculiar feature of the present international economy is that the leading 'hegemonic' country, USA, has a large and mounting external deficit which it finances by issuing debt in its own currency. The US can be seen to be at the apex of a pattern of triangular payments recycling the surpluses of creditor countries to debtor countries in the periphery. The paper shows, within a stock-flow-consistent framework, how capital flight from debtor periphery countries, by precipitating a shift from assets denominated in domestic currency to those denominated in dollars, acts like a safety valve for the international monetary system.global imbalances, international financial system, financial intermediation, Minskian fragility, core-periphery relations,

La reforma del sistema financiero internacional: las cuestiones núcleo-periferia y el patrón dólar

The floating dollar standard was rooted in the aggressive pursuit of liberalized financial markets and the asymmetric integration of countries in the periphery into the international financial system. The mechanism of generating international liquidity was buttressed by the concerted advocacy of trade and financial liberalization of developing countries in the interests of preserving dollar dominance. This had enabled fragility to be exported to the periphery through two and a half decades of growing US deficits, while at the same time imparting greater elasticity to the adjustment mechanisms in the core. The debates and negotiations around refashioning the global financial architecture in the wake of the current global crisis need to take these core –periphery issues into account.financial crisis, financialization, private capital flows, international monetary reform.

Technology, distribution and the rate of profit in the U.S. economy: understanding the current crisis

This paper offers a synoptic account of the state of the debate among Marxist scholars regarding the current structural crisis of capitalism, identifies two broad streams within the literature dealing, in turn, with aggregate demand and profitability problems, and proceeds to concentrate on an analysis of issues surrounding the profitability problem in two steps. First, evidence on profitability trends for the non-farm non-financial corporate business, the non-financial corporate business and the corporate business sectors in post-war USA are summarised. A broad range of profit rate measures are covered and data from both the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (NIPA and Fixed Assets Tables) and the Federal Reserve (Flow of Funds Account) are used. Second, the underlying drivers of profitability, in terms of technology and distribution, are investigated. The profitability analysis is used to offer some hypotheses about the current structural crisis