Suchergebnisse

This paper addresses Marx's theory of crisis in order to analyze the Great Recession in Spain, a peripheral economy within the Eurozone. It demonstrates that underlying the problem of the "housing bubble" is an incapacity to generate surplus value, which in turn explains certain particularities related to capital composition, productivity, wages, and finance. The article further carries out a critique of both orthodox and heterodox approaches that focus on (1) profit squeeze caused by labor market rigidities, (2) underconsumption due to stagnant wages, and (3) finances, interest rates, and indebtedness JEL classification: B14, E11, E20, E43, J30

This paper presents a comparative analysis of capital accumulation in the US, Spain, and Brazil from 1990 to 2014, in order to analyze the peculiarities of the main contemporary economy (US), a developed one with a peripheral integration into the Eurozone (Spain), and a semiperipheral economy within a backward region (Brazil). This period is highlighted, especially for Spain and Brazil, by a neoliberal turn and certain monetary stability. Taking the US economy as a reference, Brazil achieved a higher average gDP and investment growth, but its capital-output ratio shows a relative high level. This economy also suffers from less capacity to produce a surplus in US dollars, and its productivity gap widens. In the case of Spain, its real-estate speculative boom has driven down both the profit rate and the productive efficiency of capital stock. Thus, while lacking an outstanding performance, the USA has kept its productive superiority in relation to Spain and Brazil.

This article analyzes the economic growth in Brazil in 1950–2008. It shows that a fall in both the profit rate and the output/capital ratio is behind the debt crisis and the subsequent neoliberal restructuring since the late 1980s. Therefore, there has not been any disconnection between profitability and investment, so the capacity to generate surplus underlies the particularities of the capital accumulation during both the import substitution and the neoliberal phases.

The article conducts a critical analysis, from a political economy approach, into the theoretical model proposed in Thomas Piketty's "Capital in the Twenty-First Century". It highlights several inconsistencies in the causal relationships that Piketty establishes to justify the existence of fundamental laws of capitalism. We conclude that these relationships constitute forces that operate in the same space, and have been developed from psychological, technical, and scarce-related elements. They are also a result of a series of questionable assumptions about the savings rate, the elasticity of substitution, economic growth, and certain exceptions to the theory of marginal productivity. ; El artículo lleva a cabo un análisis crítico, desde la economía política, del modelo teórico de Thomas Piketty en su libro El Capital del siglo XXI. Se destacan numerosas inconsistencias en las relaciones causales que Piketty establece para justificar la existencia de leyes fundamentales del capitalismo. Por ello, se concluye que más bien se trata de fuerzas que operan en un mismo plano, construidas a partir de elementos psicológicos, técnicos y de escasez, y de una serie de hipótesis discutibles sobre la tasa de ahorro, la elasticidad de sustitución, el crecimiento económico y ciertas excepciones a la teoría de la productividad marginal. ; O artigo realiza uma análise crítica, desde a economia política, do modelo teórico de Thomas Piketty em seu livro O Capital do século XXI. Destacam-se inúmeras inconsistências nas relações causais que Piketty estabelece para justificar a existência de leis fundamentais do capitalismo. Por isso, conclui-se que, melhor dizendo, trata-se de forças que operam em um mesmo plano, construídas a partir de elementos psicológicos, técnicos e de escassez, e de uma serie de hipóteses discutíveis sobre a taxa de poupança, a elasticidade de substituição, o crescimento econômico e algumas exceções à teoria da produtividade marginal.

El artículo lleva a cabo un análisis crítico, desde la economía política, del modelo teórico de Thomas Piketty en su libro El Capital del siglo XXI. Se destacan numerosas inconsistencias en las relaciones causales que Piketty establece para justificar la existencia de leyes fundamentales del capitalismo. Por ello, se concluye que más bien se trata de fuerzas que operan en un mismo plano, construidas a partir de elementos psicológicos, técnicos y de escasez, y de una serie de hipótesis discutibles sobre la tasa de ahorro, la elasticidad de sustitución, el crecimiento económico y ciertas excepciones a la teoría de la productividad marginal.

This paper addresses the current situation of the left in Spain (excluding traditional social democracy) and its future prospects. Since the so-called 15-M movement of May 2011 and the subsequent creation of Podemos ('We Can'), there has been a perceived possibility of the overcoming the neoliberal offensive and the so-called regime of 1978, the political structure of the last decades. However, it is argued here that the rise of this 'new left' does not necessarily imply a strengthening of the subject of transformation, the labour movement, nor the political framework for achieving social rights in the future.

Este artículo lleva a cabo una conceptualización de los denominados "enfoques de la financiarización" sobre el fenómeno de la crisis como 1) un momento necesario del proceso de acumulación o 2) mera posibilidad, producto de una ruptura exógena de la tendencia hacia el equilibrio del libre funcionamiento del mercado, o como alternativa, de una inapropiada política económica. Se situará la tesis de la financiarización en el marco de un conjunto de explicaciones sobre la crisis que comparten la idea de que, en ciertas circunstancias, el capitalismo puede evitar la crisis. Por tanto, se argumentará que los enfoques de la financiarización sustentan una teoría de la posibilidad de la crisis.