Re: Re: Re: RE: Re: Re: Re: Re: the profit rate & recession

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

Michael Perelman wrote:
>
>
>
> Fred's approach of looking at profits makes a great deal of sense when
> looking at long swings, but in the short run -- as to what causes a
> particular downturn -- identification is still a problem.
>

What is the political importance of understanding the economics of a
particular recession (or boom)?

Marx's concern with crises, as with other features of capitalism, was
primarily, it seems to me, focused on the question of whether capitalism
was a "natural" or historical system, not on doing economic analyses of
particular occasions (such as the present).

Carrol