Date: Sun, 11 Jan 98 9:29:39 EST
From: boddhisatva <kbevans-AT-panix.com>
Subject: Re: M-TH: Economic crisis and crisis theory






		C. Henwood,



	Clearly the U.S. bourgeoisie has profited by putting the squeeze
on labor.  Could they also have profited by increasing the total
efficiency and liquidity of the capitalist economy?  Easier and more
informed ("transparent") access to cash, credit, producer and consumer
goods make every dollar invested less risky, so that more risk is taken.
Since risk taken ultimately expresses itself as consumers paid in advance
of expected returns, and those consumers more rapidly valorize previous
risk, profitability increases.  Capitalism always suffers from the fact
the capitalists are intrinsically risk-averse he invests with a
traditional and a pack mentality instead of a rational one. His caution
leads to consumer caution (less money paid to workers working on unproven
or new capitals) at the same time it encourages his fellow capitalists to
speculate on narrow sectors of the market. For an exporter, the
combination of internal consumer caution and external consumer enthusiasm
can lead to very poor and irrational valuation and then poor and
irrational valorization of GDP.



	I hate to sound like a capitalist, but the U.S. leads the pack in
transparency and liquid markets.  Europe is turning around its attitudes
towards these things and the world is discovering the mess that the Japanese
bourgeoisie have created.  High capital/output investment is very bad for
business because that capital can become sunk liquidity.  Making the value of
that capital transparent to the credit system is essential to keep that
liquidity from being sunk.  Also, if capital to output ratios have anything
to do with the balance between industrial and consumer credit, the U.S. has
it all over these other areas.  I believe that the Asian economies are
probably extracting as much or more surplus value, but they are just not
playing the capitalist game properly.  The U.S., as you point out, has the
look of an economy that is topping out in profitability from the new way
the game is played, although I think the crisis of industrial production
is probably a decade away.  



	peace





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