Sunday, August 06, 2017

remember to read "business bad for business"

Business Is Bad for Business by Andrew Elrod

tight labor markets bad for profits? Goldman Sachs warnings.
Marshall Steinbaum: 

Exactly. As @JWMason1 has shown, corporations are pumping cash out to shareholders, rather than sucking it in for investment.

1:35 PM - 6 Aug 2017

Gavin Wright paper

Joan Robinson on labor market and productivity gains

Cambridge capital controversy
Some members of the Marxian school argue that even if the means of production "earned" a return based on their marginal product, that does not imply that their owners (i.e., the capitalists) created the marginal product and should be rewarded. In the Sraffian view, the rate of profit is not a price, and it is not clear that it is determined in a market. In particular, it only partially reflects the scarcity of the means of production relative to their demand. While the prices of different types of means of production are prices, the rate of profit can be seen in Marxian terms, as reflecting the social and economic power that owning the means of production gives this minority to exploit the majority of workers and to receive profit. But not all followers of Sraffa interpret his theory of production and capital in this Marxian way. Nor do all Marxists embrace the Sraffian model: in fact, such authors as Michael Lebowitz and Frank Roosevelt are highly critical of Sraffian interpretations, except as a narrow technical critique of the neoclassical view. There are also Marxian economists, like Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel, who consider the Sraffian theory of prices, wages and profit to be superior to Marx's own theory.

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