Abstract
This chapter draws attention to some essential issues which are considered key to fully grasp the meaning of the crisis and the surrounding controversies as well: the human dimension and State intervention, income distribution and the associated social conflict, together with finances and speculative bubbles. In addition, an analysis of the particularities of the crisis in advanced and peripheral economies is carried out. Contrary to other heterodox accounts, it is claimed that the explanation of the crisis requires considering as well the geographical dimension, that is, the unequal development on a world scale. Consequently, the author points out that less developed economies tend to have greater inequality, suffer more from financial instability and have greater external dependence. Ultimately, the manifestation of the crisis depends on the degree of development of the productive forces and the place a country occupies in world capitalism, grounded on the capacity to produce surplus.
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Notes
- 1.
In fact, this procedure is the one that follows the system of national accounts, despite its neoclassical-Keynesian inspiration. Remarkably, in this case they are elaborated according to Marx’s approach.
- 2.
This is how one can interpret the famous Marx’s (1894: 238 [MECW 37]) statement that “nothing is more absurd, for this reason, than to explain the fall in the rate of profit by a rise in the rate of wages, although this may be the case by way of an exception,” that is, as a mere but real possibility.
- 3.
A change in relative prices, apart from the SNLT, does not create new value. The increase in the price of a financial asset means that its owner can obtain a greater amount of money by selling it. But this implies that the buyer disburses that amount, so that he waives a current consumption of the same amount. It is a zero-sum game, what one wins occurs to the detriment of the other’s loss.
- 4.
Something similar happens with credit to households. It is assumed that their labor will be socially validated as necessary labor to be acquired by the variable capital disbursed by a corporation. But if the worker is not hired, is fired, or his salary is reduced, the situation will be analogous to that of indebted companies.
- 5.
Following Desai (2012), I must claim as well the materiality of nations and the imbrication within the framework of world capitalism. However, and even sharing elements of her approach, I consider that there is an underlying economic logic, and in addition, the approach of this book will focus on the particularities and the role of the national valorization space for the theory of crisis.
- 6.
It should be noted that the relevant rate for the theory of crisis is not the purchasing power parity (ERPPP), as used by international organizations and orthodox economics, but the market exchange rate (ER), due to the priority given to investment in means of production over consumption (see Freeman 2004, 2009).
- 7.
Martínez-Hernández (2017), in his study on developed and peripheral economies, shows that in the long term, the real exchange rate is structurally linked to real unit labor costs. Therefore, “the sustainable real exchange rate is that which corresponds to the relative competitive position of a nation” (Shaikh 2016: 532).
- 8.
While in the periphery there is a dependence on external savings, complemented with the purpose of curbing capital outflows, an underdevelopment of financial markets, and also the need to control inflationary pressures.
- 9.
This greater indebtedness, sometimes even a deficit in the current account balance, should not necessarily be seen as an example of weakness. Rather, it possible mean the ability to access more resources, or an increased demand.
- 10.
Meaning that a high ratio in monetary units can correspond to a reduced volume of assets. On the other hand, the level of the stock of capital is influenced by the sectoral structure of the economy, since not all activities require the same amount of inputs, machinery or infrastructure for their production.
- 11.
Note that the other ratios contain monetary variables both in the numerator and the denominator, which does not happen with the K∗/L ratio, making it possible to more appropriately identify these center-periphery asymmetries.
- 12.
In this sense, Valle and Martínez (2013) allude to the relationship between dependence on imports of means of production and the rise in the value composition of capital, pointing out that is higher than the corresponding composition in value of the same industries with greater productivity.
- 13.
This statement is based on a non-dualistic interpretation of the theory of value, based on the concept of empowered labor (see Astarita 2010; Nieto 2015). Nevertheless, in certain activities there may be an important mobility of workers so as to establish a value of labor power in international terms. Think of a highly qualified job, or an elite athlete. But as a rule, it can be affirmed that there is generally a national dimension in determining this value.
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Mateo Tomé, J.P. (2019). Advancing in the Theory of Crisis: Social, Temporal and Geographical Dynamics. In: The Theory of Crisis and the Great Recession in Spain . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27084-1_3
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