There's one prior step that needs to be mentioned -- the origin of big finance in sovereign loans to governments to finance wars and war making. These are unique because governments aren't constrained by the indeterminacy of demand and price you emphasize. They tax to pay the interest on the debt, roll over the principal, borrow some more and tax some more to pay the higher interest. The demand for the commodity, war, is whatever the 800-pound gorilla says it is. Does Sismondi go into this? It's one of the aspects of Dilke's analysis I particularly appreciate and that IMHO surpasses Marx's.
On 4/13/08, John Vertegaal <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The usurpation of living standard by the financial sector has nothing to do > with any surplus value. It happens when fees of the FS, having found their > way down as part of retail output costs, are not resolved by its recipients. > And retailers, having assumed those costs, are now forced into calling on > lines of credit in order to stay in business, shoveling whatever profits > they do manage to realize, over to the benefit of the FS who caused the > problem in the first place; leaving zilch for employee pay raises, and their > equitable share in productivity growth. By FS fees, I include the scandalous > bonuses of productive sector top executives, often having no other outlet > than asset inflation. -- Sandwichman _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
