From: "jurriaan bendien" <Jbendien-AT-globalxs.nl>
Subject: Re: M-TH: Economic crisis and crisis theory
Date: Sat, 10 Jan 1998 19:48:05 +0100


Doug asks:


> What do we know about profit rates for various countries? I know these
are
> stinkingly bourgeois statistics that haven't been transformed by the
> Marxian algebraic machinery, but here are some OECD estimates:
> 
> rates of return on capital
> --------------------------
>         1970-80 avg   1981    1991    1997
> U.S.       19.4       18.7    23.2    28.8
> EU         13.7       11.0    13.5    15.1
> Japan      16.9       13.3    14.7    12.5

I would not trust the absolute level of profitability shown these series,
but they are indicative of the real trend, the movements, as revealed by
many different analyses of profitability.  That is to say, during the 1980s
the working class resistance to austerity was mainly defeated or
ineffectual, raising the rate of surplus-value, and the rate of profit, and
re-orienting production to those sectors of the population who have a lot
of disposable income.

Doug writes: 
 
The U.S. Also appears to be the least
> capital-intensive producer in the OECD:
> 
> capital-output ratios, 1996
> ---------------------------
> U.S.         1.91
> Germany      2.75
> Japan        2.55

I would be a bit careful with official capital-output ratios  (see on this
issue A. Shaikh & E. Tonak, Measuring the Wealth of Nations, Cambridge
University Press). Official measures of productivity are rather suspect, in
view of what is included in "output" and "value added".

Doug asks: 

Does this
> leave the U.S. vulnerable to a profitability crisis anytime soon?
> 
I would say the main "vulnerability" in the U.S. today lies in the
overextension of credit shoring up demand. That is to say, the lifestyles
of Americans today do not bear relationship to the real condition of
American capitalism, they are based on the ability of the USA to assert
itself militarily in the world. In reality, the USA is "in the hock"
financially. 
 
Regards

Jurriaan


     --- from list marxism-thaxis-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---