[PEN-L:10986] Re: K/Y ratios

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

rakesh bhandari quoted from:

>Paul Mattick, 1983. *Marxism: last refuge of the bourgeoisie?*

I've long wondered about that title. Just how does Marxism offer this refuge?

Thanks for posting that very illuminating quote, Rakesh. The U.S.
capital/output ratio rose through the 1970s even as profitability was
falling; the ratio began falling about the time profits reversed their
slide and started heading upwards, the early 1980s. It's plain that rentier
interests have led the charge to choke back on investment, and to
distribute more profits in money form to shareholders rather than
accumulating them in physical capital. This is visible in the apparently
tireless vigor of the stock market. If Mattick's analysis is correct, then,
there should be some hell to pay somewhere down the road. WIth Clinton
lording it over the G-7 about the wonders of the American Way of Life,
there's a pleasure in contemplating this.


Doug