Date: Sun, 14 May 1995 08:56:24 -0400 (EDT)
From: glevy-AT-acnet.pratt.edu
Subject: Re: Value - Steve's paper: Part 3


If I understand Chris's summary of Steve's paper correctly, all that 
Steve has written has been written by many other Neo-Ricardians 
previously (including Sraffa, Steedman, and many others).  Was Steve 
attempting, simply, to popularize the Sraffian critique of Marx or did he 
attempt to advance it in some ways?  Perhaps Steve could respond.

For at least 13 years, there has been quite a plentiful exchange between 
Marxist economists and Neo-Ricardians on this topic.  Perhaps Steve would 
agree that there has been relatively little movement on both sides.

Neo-Ricardians point to the alleged inconsistency of Marx's value theory, 
yet, I have read precious little on some apparent inconsistencies between 
the Neo-Ricardians and the Post-Keynesians.  These two schools of 
thought, one rooted in classical political economy (post-Ricardo), and 
the other based on (original) Keynesianism, seem to me to be entirely 
different schools of intellectual thought.  A mere marriage of 
convenience, it would seem.   Doesn't Steve believe that Keynes rejection 
of the "classics" imply a rejection of classical (including Sraffian) 
thought?  How can Keynes perspective on macroeconomics be reconciled with 
the micro-foundations of Neo-Ricardian thought?

The best defense may be to go on the offensive.  Sure, Marxists have a 
lot of work to do in term of developing Marxist understandings of 
capitalist development.  Yet, other schools of thought are presented with 
similar challenges.

Despite the above, I believe that Post-Keynesians (as distinct from 
Neo-Ricardians) have done a lot of interesting work on many topics 
precisely because they start from the standpoint of trying to understand 
the dynamics of capitalist development.  I still believe that many of the 
differences between the schools of thought are based on the different 
methodologies used.


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