Explorations In Marx S Theory Of Price Why Marx Is Still Relevant For Understanding The Modern Economy

This book is the first volume in a three-volume series that takes an in-depth look at the relevance of Marx's economics for understanding the modern economy. The focus of this volume is the money prices of commodities. In light of the failure of central banks to stimulate inflation through printing of money, it is now accepted that there are problems with the mainstream approach to the explanation of prices. Howard Nicholas underlines the shortcomings of this and other approaches to the explanation of prices, particularly their concepts of the value of the commodity and money. He argues the problems with all other approaches are manifest in their inability to explain the changes in the relative prices of commodities, taking place in the context of changes in the aggregate money price level as well as independently. He contends that of paramount importance in Marx’s explanation is that prices are set by producers prior to putting their commodities into the process of circulation, undermining the notion they are determined by the supply of and demand for the commodities in the process of exchange. Marx’s approach to the explanation of prices is also contrasted with those of Neoclassicals, Post-Keynesians and Sraffa, with a view to highlighting the shortcomings in these approaches as bases for their understanding and explanations of money and prices. This book will be of interest to academics and students of price theory, money and finance, political economy, and the history of economic thought.

This book is the first volume in a three-volume series that takes an in-depth look at the relevance of Marx's economics for understanding the modern economy. The focus of this volume is the money prices of commodities. In light of the failure of central banks to stimulate inflation through printing of money, it is now accepted that there are problems with the mainstream approach to the explanation of prices. Howard Nicholas underlines the shortcomings of this and other approaches to the explanation of prices, particularly their concepts of the value of the commodity and money. He argues the problems with all other approaches are manifest in their inability to explain the changes in the relative prices of commodities, taking place in the context of changes in the aggregate money price level as well as independently. He contends that of paramount importance in Marx's explanation is that prices are set by producers prior to putting their commodities into the process of circulation, undermining the notion they are determined by the supply of and demand for the commodities in the process of exchange. Marx's approach to the explanation of prices is also contrasted with those of Neoclassicals, Post-Keynesians and Sraffa, with a view to highlighting the shortcomings in these approaches as bases for their understanding and explanations of money and prices. This book will be of interest to academics and students of price theory, money and finance, political economy, and the history of economic thought. Howard Nicholas retired in 2020 as associate professor in economics at the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University of Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He has published in the areas of inflation, development theory, financial markets, the global economy, and the macro dynamics of a number of countries. He is the author of Marx's Theory of Price and its Modern Rivals (Palgrave Macmillan).

Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: Marx.- Chapter 3: Smith.- Chapter 4: Ricardo.- Chapter 5: Sraffa.- Chapter 7: Marxists.- Chapter 8: Neoclassicals.- Chapter 9: Conclusions.

Marx's Theory of Price and its Modern Rivals provides an original look at how Marx understood the role of money, extending his theory to consider how prices move over the course of business cycles. Key modern theories of price are also analysed; Neoclassical, Post Keynesian and Sraffian theories are contrasted with Marxian thought.

This book is a critical analysis of political economy, meant to reveal the contradictions of the capitalist mode of production, how it was the precursor of the socialist mode of production and of the class struggle rooted in the capitalist social relations of production. Karl Marx (1818–1883) was a famous German philosopher, economist, historian, political theorist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist.

Isaak Ilyich Rubin (1886-1937) was a Soviet economist who participated in the Russian Revolution and was a researcher at the Marx-Engels Institute Though his ideas were suppressed by the Soviet Union and he was eventually killed after being accused of Trotskyism, his ideas have since been rehabilitated within modern Marxism. Essays on Marx's Theory of Value (1924) emphasizes the importance of Marx's theory of commodity fetishism within the labor theory of value. It also argues that Marx's mature economic work represented the culmination of his lifetime project to understand how human creative power is shaped by social structures. He also discusses commodity production as a mere theoretical abstraction that only explains one aspect of a developed capitalist economy. The concept of value, as understood by Rubin, cannot exist without the other elements of a full-blown capitalist economy: money, capital, the existence of a proletariat, and so on. This Radical Reprint by Pattern Books is made to be accessible and as close to only manufacturing cost as possible.

This book provides a contemporary assessment of Marx's theory of money. This theory is often praised as one of Marx's greatest achievements, especially when compared with either classical or neoclassical economics. On the other hand, Marx's theory of money has also been severely criticized, especially that it seems to require that money be a produced commodity. The contributors to the volume provide a wide-ranging and in-depth appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of Marx's theory of money, compared to other theories of money.

This book examines what we can gain from a critical reading of Marx's final manuscript and his conclusion of the "systematic presentation" of his critique, which was the basis for Engels's construction of the third volume of his infamous 'Capital'. The text introduces the reader to a key problem ́of Marx's largely implicit epistemology, by exploring the systematic character of his exposition and the difference of this kind of 'systematicity' from Hegelian philosophical system construction. The volume contributes to establishing a new understanding of the critique of political economy, as it has been articulated in various debates since the 1960s - especially in France, Germany, and Italy - and as it had already been initiated by Marx and some of his followers, with Rosa Luxemburg in a key role. All the chapters are transdisciplinary in nature, and explore the modern day relevance of Marx's and Luxemburg's theoretical analysis of the dominance of the capitalist mode of production.