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An important interview in which he exposes his willful ignorance. He admits never having read any Marx except the Manifesto, yet blithely slanders Marx for "having no data." So leave aside the fact for now that he says nothing about surplus value, rates of profit (falling or otherwise), or any other key Marxist economic concept (well, not nothing: he lies and claims Marx didn't deal with productivity increases). What he means by Marx having "no data" is that Marx doesn't accumulate the kind of data that can be plugged into an x-y graph comparing two variables, which is the be-all and end-all for mainstream economists (Piketty doesn't do it in a particularly sophisticated way, but that's for he and his colleagues to deal with). Marx DOES include more than enough data to prove the validity of his formulas for surplus and profit rates and on that basis to outline laws of motion, patterns of accumulation etc. And all that is a solid basis for empirical investigations like those of Shaikh and Tonak on national accounts which expose Piketty's data for the amateurish conglomeration it is. On Tue, May 6, 2014 at 8:55 AM, Louis Proyect <l...@panix.com> wrote: > ====================================================================== > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > ====================================================================== > > > http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117655/thomas-piketty- > interview-economist-discusses-his-distaste-marx > > ________________________________________________ > Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu > Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/ > marxism/acpollack2%40gmail.com > ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
