Kirjahaku

This section reflects the diversity of Marx's legacy in economics, including titles which have had a major impact in the development of the new analytical Marxism.

Many of the central results of Classical and Marxian political economy are examples of the self-organization of the capitalist economy as a complex, adaptive system far from equilibrium. An Unholy Trinity explores the relations between contemporary complex systems theory and classical political economy, and applies the methods it develops to the problems of induced technical change and income distribution in capitalist economies, the control of environmental externalities such as global warming and the stabilization of the world population. The arguments and methods of this important book address central problems both of economic science and economic policy and provide fresh paths for theoretical exploration.

Many of the central results of Classical and Marxian political economy are examples of the self-organization of the capitalist economy as a complex, adaptive system far from equilibrium. An Unholy Trinity explores the relations between contemporary complex systems theory and classical political economy, and applies the methods it develops to the problems of induced technical change and income distribution in capitalist economies, the control of environmental externalities such as global warming and the stabilization of the world population. The arguments and methods of this important book address central problems both of economic science and economic policy and provide fresh paths for theoretical exploration.

This book could be called “The Intelligent Person’s Guide to Economics.” Like Robert Heilbroner’s The Worldly Philosophers, it attempts to explain the core ideas of the great economists, beginning with Adam Smith and ending with Joseph Schumpeter. In between are chapters on Thomas Malthus, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, the marginalists, John Maynard Keynes, Friedrich Hayek, and Thorstein Veblen. The title expresses Duncan Foley’s belief that economics at its most abstract and interesting level is a speculative philosophical discourse, not a deductive or inductive science. Adam’s fallacy is the attempt to separate the economic sphere of life, in which the pursuit of self-interest is led by the invisible hand of the market to a socially beneficial outcome, from the rest of social life, in which the pursuit of self-interest is morally problematic and has to be weighed against other ends.Smith and his successors argued that the market and the division of labor that is fostered by it result in tremendous gains in productivity, which lead to a higher standard of living. Yet the market does not address the problem of distribution—that is, how is the gain in wealth to be divided among the classes and members of society? Nor does it address such problems as the long-run well-being of the planet.Adam’s Fallacy is beautifully written and contains interesting observations and insights on almost every page. It will engage the reader’s thoughts and feelings on the deepest level.

Understanding Capital is a brilliantly lucid introduction to Marxist economic theory. Duncan Foley builds an understanding of the theory systematically, from first principles through the definition of central concepts to the development of important applications. All of the topics in the three volumes of Capital are included, providing the reader with a complete view of Marxist economics.Foley begins with a helpful discussion of philosophical problems readers often encounter in tackling Marx, including questions of epistemology, explanation, prediction, determinism, and dialectics. In an original extension of theory, he develops the often neglected concept of the circuit of capital to analyze Marx’s theory of the reproduction of capital. He also takes up central problems in the capitalist economy: equalization of the rates of profit (the “transformation problem”); productive and unproductive labor and the division of surplus value; and the falling rate of profit. He concludes with a discussion of the theory of capitalist crisis and of the relation of Marx’s critique of capitalism to his conception of socialism.Through a careful treatment of the theory of money in relation to the labor theory of value, Foley clarifies the relation of prices to value and of Marx’s categories of analysis to conventional business and national income accounts, enabling readers to use Marx’s theory as a tool for the analysis of practical problems. The text is closely keyed throughout to the relevant chapters in Capital and includes suggestions for further reading on the topics discussed.