djones (what is your full name?) says: > It includes an > effective critique of underconsumption theory from a revolutionary > INTERNATIONALIST pt of view (!!!!)and a re-specification of the law of the > tendency of falling profit rate as an explanation of why capital > accumulation must take the form of crisis cycles (not of when capitalism > must breakdown). > Business cycles or long-term waves (50 yrs.)? I assume long-term waves in the following: IMHO there are two _different_ explanations for long-term cycles in capitalism, which both may be characterised as "accumulation-related". First to the capital intensity version: A long-term falling trend in the average rate of profit mainly due to growth in capital intensity is used to explain the transition from boom to recession to depression. To understand the other explanation, this line of reasoning: Imagine an economy where manufacturing technology is fairly unchanged for several decades. Following the capital intensity argument, this economy should then be _exempt_ from the long-term crisis mechanism. But, imagine that this society has a money system, and a real level of interest/returns sufficient for lenders/investors to accumulate. Accumulation of assets on one side is accumulation of debts on the other. Money as a neccessary transport medium for production will to a gradually stronger degree be withdrawn from circulation in the productive sector, and instead circulate in the financial sphere. Economic fragility will increase with polarization. Debtors will sooner or later default on a large scale, and creditors will lose money, and also have few new safe investment opportunities. Society will grind to halt. This crisis mechanism implies that even a static agrarian economy, with negligible industrial and technological progress, will experience a path towards depression. The two explanations give different predictions for such a society. Note that I haven't said which theory I support. This is only to point out that the two "accumulation" explanations are qualitatively different Trond ---------------------------------------------- | Trond Andresen ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) | | Department of Engineering Cybernetics | | The Norwegian Institute of Technology | | N-7034 Trondheim, NORWAY | | | | phone (work) +47 73 59 43 58 | | fax (work) +47 73 59 43 99 | | private phone +47 73 53 08 23 | -----------------------------------------------
