Re: Exchange value of currencies

[Chris Burford <cburford@xxxxxxxxxx>]

At 19/04/02 11:02 +0200, RK wrote:

> This is not a theorem from Marx nor from Engels, but of mine. I have
> demonstrated it in a paper that is published on irép's website, the title of
> which is "Asymmetry and Accumulation, or World System's Entropy". The rates
> of change are not exclusively linked to the differential turnovers of
> capital, but this is the main cause and the only explanation of a
> structurally strictly distributed trend of relative rates since 1971 (dollar
> disconnection from gold, and flexibles changes).
>
> >  (...)  Also I have to say that I do not see the speed of
> > capital turnover within a country, being an intermediate variable between
> > its increased productivity and the relative exchange rate with another
> > currency.
>
> It is not matter of the absolute speed of turnover, but of the relative one.
> As a higher speed (i.e. higher productivity) determines a higher flow of
> imputs (imports), and as the flow of export outputs depends on outside
> demand, that is on outside imputs, the country that has the higher speed of
> turnover gets a structurally trending negative balance of trade.

I am sure there are some technical questions in your paper which are
important and which I do not know. However even at a general level I can
believe there is an association between increased productivity and an
increased speed of capital turnover. My doubt was that the latter is a
necessary intermediate variable with the relative exchange rate of the
currency. It could be another dependent variable, rather than an
intermediate variable.

In the passage above you almost simply equate higher speed of turnover with
higher productivity.

I would have thought the link is that in a more productive society with a
higher organic composition of capital, there are more commodities, a more
complex market, more exchanges taking place and more sophisticated
mechanisms of exchange.

Perhaps these details are not important however. The thread I want to hold
on to is the link between the great disparity in the world in the organic
composition of capital, and the relative exchange value of currencies.

Or do I mean the relative value of labour power in different countries? -
perhaps that is the link with the massive relentless exploitation of the
poor world by the rich world.

Chiris Burford

London