WHY CAPITALISM SURVIVES CRISES: THE SHOCK ABSORBERS

The leading part of this volume, authored by Simon Stander and true to the interdisciplinary nature of political economy, focuses attention on why capitalism survives crises by developing the novel argument that it has moved on from its 19th century embodiment to include a class of shock absorbers. This class, consisting of fractionalised individuals, absorbs the massive surpluses of produced commodities while buffering capitalism against the declines of values during crises of the financial system. This gives rise to Reformism, rather than class conflict, which becomes a central feature in the political arena. The absorptive class in its dialectical relationship to the other two major classes, capitalist and working class, is vital for this reformist tendency; in this context consideration of the individual in a narcissistic social environment also becomes a focus of attention. With its distinct importance, the absorptive class helps glue capitalist economy and state together, and this provides an understanding of the contradiction between the need for a 'big' state in the interest of the absorption of commodities and the 'small state' in the interest of efficient resource allocation and profit. The second part of the volume considers the application and conceptualization of the value theory by leading academics in political economy and concludes with an exposition of the methodology differences between two important Japanese marxian economists.

THE CAPITALIST STATE AND ITS ECONOMY; DEMOCRACY IN SOCIALISM

The volume addresses the role of the capitalist state by focusing on the introduction of the welfare state, the drive via taxation to have indigenous populations work as wage-laborers, the nation-state's and capital's relationship to labor, and understanding conceptually the placement of institutions. The volume continues by addressing price and technical choice in capitalism, including the importance of abstract labor and the empirical relation between technical choice and profit rates. Economic democracy within socialism is also addressed, while the concluding chapter develops an understanding of the class determination of knowledge itself.

NEOLIBERALISM IN CRISIS, ACCUMULATION, AND ROSA LUXEMBURG'S LEGACY

This volume explores overlapping themes in radical political economy. The first section looks at the disciplinary role of capital under neoliberalism through an examination of official development policies of the US government and the World Bank, labour restructuring in Argentina, the tenuous nature of global finance, and cultural dimensions of bourgeois ideology. The second section examines, theoretically, accumulation of capital and finance and, empirically, the relation of values to prices. The third section focuses, both theoretically and biographically, on the legacy of one of the most important Marxists of all time: Rosa Luxemburg.

TRANSITIONS IN LATIN AMERICA AND IN POLAND AND SYRIA

With a world balance of forces in tension, this volume slices the political map in two dimensions, the geographical dimension and the imperialism?socialism dimension ("socialism", of course, having widely varying meanings). As a region, Latin America is in the forefront of resistance to imperial schemes, particularly those by the United States. Venezuela and Cuba represent leading edges of resistance, and Colombia, a leading edge of U.S. hegemony. Chapters addressing the political economies of these countries form the first part of the volume. Poland has led the anti-Soviet transition into a pro-market realignment, a realignment of this country which is particularly oriented toward the United States. Syria, on the other hand and even as it moves into a pro-market orientation, is subject to particular U.S. hostility. Both cases are analyzed in Part II, with the chapter on Poland having considerably broader applicability. Also included here is the continued deeper penetration of capitalist relations within the United States, represented by analysis of the transition of its medical sector. For almost a century, stages of capitalism has been an important theme within Marxism. The theme is analyzed at the beginning of Part III, and connects to the more empirical work represented by the prior six chapters. The volume concludes with translation from Japanese of an important critique of the classical political economy of Adam Smith and David Ricardo, who, in a certain sense, were the leading proponents, historically, of the market, of capitalism. Most poignantly, this chapter argues that Ricardian value theory opens the door to a vulgar system of economic thought.

CONFRONTING 9-11, IDEOLOGIES OF RACE, AND EMINENT ECONOMISTS

Confronting 9-11, the first chapter draws upon a Hegelian-Marxist concept of concrete evil, connecting malevolence to ruling elites, while additionally addressing sub-surface political forces. It is followed by 'deep political' analysis of drugs, in addition to oil, as controlling factors of U. S. wars. Both chapters focus around Afghanistan. -- Commonalties of race ideologies in capitalist contexts are next examined by connecting them to capitalist societies' goals and strategies. Haiti and South Africa are case studies. -- Estimates for U.S. value and surplus value are undertaken and related to GDP. Implications are drawn for the distribution of value, use value and social labor. The model permits simulation and sensitivity analysis, with links provided to a careful implementation. Four chapters deal critically with writings of major economists. The first shows that Keynes, while rejecting invisible hand mechanisms, assigned to the educated bourgeoisie the role of overcoming the pathologies of capitalism. The second investigates evidence of plagiarism in Keynes, showing that he appropriated Gesell's insights into the nature of money and interest but in a manner to help preserve capitalism. Moving to overcome limited attention by Marxists to Ricardo's comparative advantage theory, the next chapter assesses the work of Shaikh and Hudson, concluding consistent with the overriding role of exploitation in production. The final chapter compares Bentham's "panopticon" (an institution of confinement, surveillance and extraction of labor) to Hayek's market order conceptualization, and shows that both are disciplinary regimes.

THE NATIONAL QUESTION AND THE QUESTION OF CRISIS

This volume focuses on nationality's efficacy in much of world affairs, and on the background and current issues surrounding global crisis. As one of the most famous Marxist revolutionaries, Rosa Luxemburg vigorously promoted her own conceptions, often opposing Lenin, her contemporary. In this volume, Narihiko Ito offers a much needed, extensive analysis of her position on the nation state versus national autonomy. This is followed by a critique of the current Iranian conjuncture, offered by Farhang Morady. The development of crises in capitalism is addressed both directly and indirectly within the volume. Radhika Desai highlights renewed consideration of the major role of consumption demand in Marxist theory and considers implications for the current crisis. Paul Zarembka extends, theoretically and empirically, Marx's analysis of long-term capitalist accumulation and shows that merely 10-15% of surplus value has been needed for the accumulation occurring over the past 150 years. The volume continues with Karen Petersen's analysis of the post-WWII developments of major currencies. Restoring the concept of freedom within the current crisis, Alan Freeman argues the need to extricate French positivism from the Marxism that developed after Marx. The final chapter by Jorgen Sandemose presents a careful argument that the beginning of Marx's Capital had origins in many philosophical traditions and especially in early German philosophy and yet that this recognition does not make Marx a "Hegelian"

MARX'S CAPITAL AND CAPITALISM; MARKETS IN A SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE

The political economist N. Sieber wrote a book in 1871 in part summarizing Marx's value theory compared to Ricardo's, and Marx himself favorably commented on the interpretation, thus representing a unique appreciation. Here, for the first time, Sieber's Russian text on Marx is translated, joined with an introductory article by James D. White and an article by David Smith on Sieber's understanding of value theory. -- Alfredo Saad-Filho develops implications of introducing a more refined discussion of the composition of capital into Zarembka's work on accumulation of capital in the previous volume. The tendency of the profit rate under two alternative criteria for technical choice is analyzed by Cheol-soo Park. Often introduced into a 'socialist' practise, the regulation of social relations by markets is criticized by Martyn Konings as being antithetical to socialism. Ideology provides our representations of the world we live in and Thierry Suchere connects the symbolic dimension to economic activity. Close links between Wittgenstein's philosophy and Sraffa's political economy as both embodying bourgeois ideology are developed by Jorgen Sandemose. Finally, the Stalinist ideological formation as a key component of Soviet history is developed from a Marxist perspective by Charles Bettelheim.

ECONOMIC THEORY OF CAPITALISM AND ITS CRISES

-- This work provides articles advancing the theoretical understanding of modern capitalism, including comparing post-Keynesian and Marxian conceptions of the endogenity of money, periodizing stages of capitalism, and understanding what "growth" means precisely beyond its common representations around gross domestic product. The economic theory of crises in capitalism is also explored theoretically and applied to the cases of Australia, France and Sweden in different time periods. The volume concludes with a symposium on applying cost theory to understanding the direction of the rate of profit in capitalism, starting from the well-known work of the Japanese economist Okishio.

VALUE, CAPITALIST DYNAMICS DYNAMICS AND MONEY

-- An introduction to Marx's theory of capitalism in Marx's own words begins the book, abridged and with his examples modernized from use of shillings and pence as subdivisions of the Pound [on-line at http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~zarembka/Marx.htm ]. -- Well-known 1901 work on the theory of crises in capitalism by Michael Tugan-Baranowsky is translated into English for the first time, with a 'Preface' placing it in context. The political activism and theoretical work of Henryk Grossman through 1926 is summarized in some detail, and a rarely-known brief article of his from 1919 included. -- Ambiguity in Marx's definition of accumulation of capital and the differing directions Lenin and Luxemburg took with it are next analyzed, with a more precise definition offered. Debate, begun in the last volume, over the valuation of means of production and its effect on the possibility of a falling tendency of the profit rate is taken a step forward as contrasting positions are developed. -- Finally, credit money as an advanced form of money is analyzed and the post-Keynesian analysis of it, originating from Kaldor, subject to critique. Several theories of inflation theory are reviewed, with focus on the agencies causing inflation. A rediscovery of Marxian inflation theory is proposed.