Cyrus Bina
has written a lot on this stuff. I haven't read it, so I don't know if I agree
with him or not.
My feeling is
that when talking about the price of any one item, the simple supply + demand +
institutions framework is sufficient. In the case of oil, the owners of the oil
fields typically get a scarcity (Ricardian) rent, unless they're stuck with
zero-rent (hard to produce) oil. This rent goes up with demand (sliding up the
supply curve). Of course, it's the scarcity rents that the oil people are
fighting for, because it's "something for nothing," a veritable free lunch. The
rent can also go up due to monopolistic restriction of supply.
Value, as
Carrol notes, is talking about the societal level. What happens with a surge of
demand (or a monopolistic or accidental cut-back in supply) is that the price of
oil rises relative to its value. This implies a redistribution of value and
surplus-value toward the oil-owners and away from other recipients of
surplus-value. This is the societal basis for the scarcity rent. The oil-owners
are able to claim a bigger chunk of the societal surplus-value because their
item is scarce (perhaps artificially so).
Of course, if
other recipients of surplus-value find themselves losing, they try to make the
workers pay for it, by intensifying exploitation (etc.) Whether or not they get
away with this depends on the depth of workers' ability to
resist.
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
some opec economist argue that there may be a Hicksian income
hypotheis holding in oil and that is oil producers are monetasing their
resources. others argue that it would still have to be taken out and
therefore the law of value should apply. i can think of how production
kicks in when prices rise in old gold mines. maybe that is an analogy with
oil. so long as something is produced for social use than the law of value
holds, however, does the fact that the resource is depletable not make certain
qualifications necessary, maybe in light of marginal magnitudes and high
rents. in other words aren't we too general by simply stating that the law of
value holds? or should we be saying that it holds because when prices rose the
high cost tarsands of northern canada came into production.
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