Hi Michael, You may not think that the crisis is a wage squeeze but the Brenner's analysis of the declining profitability, I mean the global one, requires an increase in wages (also global). This was shown clearly (in my view) by anwar in his Hist. Materialism piece, downloadable from his site:
http://homepage.newschool.edu/~AShaikh/world.html My reading of Brenner's argument can be summed up --a bit crudely-- like this: Competition among American/German/Japanese Manufacturers ==> Decline in US Manufacturing Prices ==> Decline in US Manufacturing Profitability ==> Decline in US General Profitability ==> Decline in German/Japanese Manufacturing Profitability ==> Decline in Global Profitability ==> Global Crisis As Anwar pointed out, in order to clarify the causal link between the US profitability and the eventual decline in global ROP Brenner needed the rising wages reference. Though, Brenner argued that the cause of this increase in wages was competition which happened to be also the cause of price decline in US manufacturing. So, on my part when I got the general agreement-sense from your review, being biased by my own reading of Brenner --influenced by Fine & Lapavistas piece in addition to Anwar's-- I drew a quick conclusion that you also share Brenner's rising wages approach -even though it is an implied one. Now, I see your different reading, which attaches a centrality to excess capacity. Sorry for the misrepresentation. Ahmet > I don't think that the crisis is a wage squeeze. What gave you that > impression? I do think that the crisis has caused business to squeeze > wages to > increase profits, but I think we would all agree with that assessment. > > My reading of Brenner is that there is excess capacity and that > governments > attempt to push the contractionary pressures onto others by screwing > around with > their exchange rates. As a result, the problems shift from one region to > another, but the excess capacity remains. > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:Re. Perelman’s review I’d say that it is > very > informative and friendly, as > >> I also discovered that (excuse my >> ignorance) Perelman is in complete agreement with the Brenner’s analysis >> of the US crisis, a wage squeeze approach. I hope I am not >> exaggerating. >> > > -- > > Michael Perelman > Economics Department > California State University > michael at ecst.csuchico.edu > Chico, CA 95929 > 530-898-5321 > fax 530-898-5901 > >
