as I understand Marx, there are two sides of finance. (1) the part that Julio refers, facilitating the movement of capital funds between sectors, etc.; and (2) the autonomous dynamics of the financial system, leading to financial bubbles (not his term) and crashes. Correspondingly, the financial system has two reasons for bull markets and crashes: (1) reflecting the rate of profit in the production center; and (2) reflecting the games played in the finance sector.
On Sat, Jul 20, 2013 at 12:16 PM, Carrol Cox <[email protected]> wrote: > The matter Julio refers to has made clearing operations, once fairly simple, > a matter of immense complexity creating very highly paid positions for the > scattering who grasp current clearing house issues. > > I guess those salaries would be part of the extra drain on the surplus Julio > speaks of. > > Carrol > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: [email protected] [mailto:pen-l- >> [email protected]] On Behalf Of Julio Huato >> Sent: Saturday, July 20, 2013 1:54 PM >> To: Progressive Economics >> Subject: [Pen-l] Financialization >> >> A quick note out of nowhere. >> >> For whatever reason, I've had to read a number of papers on the >> so-called phenomenon of "financialization," and nowhere have I found >> mention of Marx's insightful point that the development of modern >> banking and financial organizations entails the centralization of >> myriad functions that, otherwise, individual capitals would have to >> perform, but much less efficiently (i.e. with a greater expense of >> society's surplus labor globally considered). This centralization >> accomplished by modern centralized finance -- Marx noted -- tends to >> reduce the faux frais (the waste of surplus labor time) of capitalist >> reproduction regarded as a totality. In our times, one has to view >> Wall Street, the City of London, and to a lesser extent Zurich, Tokyo, >> Frankfurt, etc. as rationalizing an enormity of minute transactions >> that, without the "scale economies" in question, would require an >> enormous expenditure of global surplus labor time scattered across the >> system. Now, this is a structural phenomenon, separate from the >> cycles, generally speaking. Here, I mean e.g. that the gradual >> dismantling of Bretton Woods, which spanned the forex financial boom >> from the 1970s on, that later on managed to undo Glass-Steagall, etc. >> further expanding the "industry," has to be distinguished from the >> secular process of centralization and economy of surplus value that >> Marx referred to as linked to the development of modern finance. >> >> Comments? >> _______________________________________________ >> pen-l mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > > > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l -- Jim Devine / "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." -- Philip K. Dick _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
