Suchergebnisse

Part I: Basic Framework -- Chapter 1.: Beyond Reification: Envisioning the Earth -- Chapter 2: The Modern Institution of Science -- Chapter 3: The History of Political Economy -- Part II. Conceptual Development and Critique of Capitalism -- Chapter 4: Fictitious Capital: Money, the Symbol and the State -- Chapter 5: Public/Private Divide -- Chapter 6: Abstraction and Reification -- Part III: Alternatives -- Chapter 7: History of Commodification and Proletarianization in the US -- Chapter 8: Regional Ecological Communities -- Chapter 9: Conclusion and Further Reflections.

The individual as a key term -- Property and reification -- The public/private divide -- The shaping of the modern liberal state -- The economics of "autophagy": implications of the economy as "machine" -- Methods of social science -- "Unique individuals" -- The property paradigm -- Contradictions -- Backlash -- Alternatives.

Introduction and selected review of the literature -- Money as a social institution -- The economy as labor exchange mediated by money -- Long term history of money and the market -- Money, models, and methodology -- Fetishism and financialization -- Money and abstraction -- Conclusion

Money is usually understood as a valuable object, the value of which is attributed to it by its users and which other users recognize. It serves to link disparate institutions, providing a disguised whole and prime tool for the "invisible hand" of the market. This book offers an interpretation of money as a social institution. Money provides the link between the household and the firm, the worker and his product, making that very division seem natural and money as imminently practical. Money as a Social Institution begins in the medieval period and traces the evolution of money alongside consequent implications for the changing models of the corporation and the state. This is then followed with double-entry accounting as a tool of long-distance merchants and bankers, then the monitoring of the process of production by professional corporate managers. Davis provides a framework of analysis for examining money historically, beyond the operation of those particular institutions, which includes the possibility of conceptualizing and organizing the world differently. This volume is of great importance to academics and students who are interested in economic history and history of economic thought, as well as international political economics and critique of political economy.

By examining the concurrent emergence of the market, the nation state, and the notion of individual private property, The Evolution of the Property Relation provides insights into the related institutional structures and processes of change based on the "property concept." Such an approach constitutes a comprehensive consideration of property as paradigm, to better understand its institutional manifestations and scientific practices, and to inform any consideration of alternatives. Davis addresses the problem of a static formalist orthodoxy in economics, which is ill-equipped to meet the challenges of institutional change, social unrest, and economic stagnation. This book defines an approach to economics which is centered on the concept of property and explores the historical evolution of the relationship of the individual, private property, and the state, and the distinctive changes wrought by the emergence of the market

There are competing narratives regarding the causes of the war in Ukraine. One focuses on the provocation by the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, while others emphasize Russian aggression. The approach implemented below is to focus on the long-term contradictions of capitalism, including the formation of Communist states themselves in Russia in 1917 and China in 1949. The subsequent relation between capitalist industrial powers and the leading Communist powers has been an important factor in the post-World War II expansion of capitalism and its conflicts. The role of key ideological frameworks, such as the definition of money, is also a factor emphasized in this analysis. Such a wider lens may enable us to judge more accurately the potential for another "Great Transformation" or a Zeitenwende. JEL Classification: B51, E58, F33, N20

In periods of history with rapid social and economic change, it is useful to examine the long-term history of particular arrangements. Money is one of these institutions that seems eternal and unchanging, but that has changed dramatically over time. For example, money was typically conceived as coins made of precious metal and stamped with the image of the ruler. As long-distance trade expanded in the early modern period, money was represented by paper, most often letters of exchange among merchants who trusted one another because of common membership in a community. The emergence of the fiscal/military state enabled populations to have some role in the issue and uses of money, such as the Italian city-states of Republican form, like Florence and Venice. After the "Glorious Revolution" in 1688, the Bank of England (BOE) innovated with merchant monopoly corporations engaging in state-supported long-distance trade, the stock of which backed public debt. The political controversies surrounding the formation of the BOE reveal some of the alternative possibilities, a merchant-oriented bank, supported by the Whigs, or a land bank supported by the Tories. After the industrial revolution, the use of credit for real investment aided the accumulation of surplus, by the productivity treadmill. After the Great Depression, the extension of finance into the lives of the citizens proceeded, with debt financing for housing, education, and retirement, encompassing the entire life cycle. The dominance of the United States after World War II enabled that country to sustain a hegemonic currency, based on the expansion of trade and supply chains to Emerging Market Countries. Along with the tech bubble in the second decade of the twenty-first century, the crypto bubble expanded hopes for an alternative form of money. Such a long-term history can be informed by analysis of the role of money as a symbol, mobilized by meanings enacted in human institutions. Such a view can provide a method of interpreting the long term evolution of money, restoring the political dimension and human agency to the abstract impersonal mechanical notion of the market. Such a perspective can better inform consideration of alternative institutions to accommodate challenges like geopolitical competition, war, and climate change. JEL Classification: B51, B52, G20, N20, P48

Rather than view the market as a tool for addressing climate change, through carbon tax or carbon permits, we argue that redefining "property" is more effective. Instead of right to exclude and absolute individual ownershp, we recommend ecological communities which prioritize human relationships and ecological stewardship. Global federations of ecological regions will manage nutrient flows on the local and global level, with democratic participation informed by ecological science. New values of caring for the earth will support and sustain new forms of solidarity.JEL Classification: B5, Q5

According to Pozsar, there is a new kind of "Triffin Dilemma." Due to rising inequality, a shrinking numbers of large banks, and a ceiling on Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insured deposits, there is a shortage of "safe assets." The private supply of safe assets has occurred through the system of shadow banks, and is based on repos, or Treasury Bonds. But the supply of US Treasury bonds is limited by the ceiling on public debt, and is constrained by neoliberal theories of limits to the size of government. As a result, there is a presumed shortage of safe assets, just when the levels of inequality have increased the order of magnitude of assets under management which are in need of protection. There are also large accumulations of cash pools by large multinational corporations, often held overseas to evade taxes. The private provision of safe assets tends to reduce liquidity and increase costs of information, potentially leading to financial instability. Possible resolutions of this issue include (1) progressive taxes to reduce the size of the cash pools, (2) an increase in the ceiling for insured deposits, and (3) increasing support by the Fed for the role of "market maker of last resort." This paper concludes with the implications of each alternative. JEL Classification: B5, E44, G01, P1

The capitalist system is based on property rules, which are the same for all forms of property. Yet these rules operate differently for capital and labor as distinct forms of property. This paradox obscures the role of living labor as the source of surplus value, and hence mystifies money as self-expanding value. This "fetishism of money" facilitates "financialization," prevents accurate analysis of the capitalist system, and the formulation of alternatives.