This is a good historical backgrounder and it should be read for that reason alone. But Michael Roberts also brings up other issues that follow upon this history that are relevant to the current debate, at least some of which that have been brought up previously in the comments here. Highly recommended.
As Maria Ivanova has shown, there remains a blind belief that the crisis-prone nature of the latter can be managed by means of ‘money artistry’, that is, by the manipulation of money, credit and (government) debt. Ivanova argues that the merits of a Marxian interpretation of the crisis surpass those of the Minskyan for at least two reasons. First, the structural causes of the Great Recession lie not in the financial sector but in the system of globalized production. Second, the belief that social problems have monetary or financial origins, and could be resolved by tinkering with money and financial institutions, is fundamentally flawed, for the very recurrence of crises attests to the limits of fiscal and monetary policies as means to ensure “balanced” accumulation.
None of the ‘money fetish’ schemes have worked or will work to get the capitalist economy going. Instead such measures have just created financial bubbles to the benefit of the richest. That’s because these “tricks of circulation” are not based on the reality of the law of value.Now that we are in the midst of a debate over capitalism and socialism, these issues are coming to the fore. Michael Roberts provides perspective from a Marxian POV.
We are going to hearing a lot of Marx as this debate unfolds and also learn about the rich history of socialist thought. Here is a quick reference on socialism.
Michael Roberts Blog
MMT, Minsky, Marx and the money fetish
Michael Roberts
This is absolutely FABULOUS. Thank you. Thank you. I had been noticing for a decade that the former hard left socialists were suddenly into Keynesianism. That surely was not the case back in 1975. This explains things quite nicely. Did I say thank you?
ReplyDeleteAnd I really love how the actual cause of these problems cannot be mentioned or even thought about (thoughtcrime). The actual cause is money created out of nothing, either through fiat or fractional reserve lending.
This would be funny if it weren't so sad.
That’s because these “tricks of circulation” are not based on the reality of the LAW OF VALUE.
ReplyDeleteIs that anything like the LAW OF PROFIT?
How does the LAW OF VALUE apply to my old Superman comic books from the 1960s?