Re: [Pen-l] recflation

["Jim Devine" <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx>]

raghu wrote:
>  >  >  > The way I see it, there is a brewing conflict between the industrial
>  >  >  >  capitalists and finance capitalists.

Sandwichman wrote:
>  >  > I would assume capitalists have diversified portfolios.

me:
>  >  I agree. IMHO, I think there is no conflict between industrial
>  >  capitalists and financial capitalists, even to the degree that there
>  >  is a conflict between big businesses and small businesses.

raghu,  now:
>  Is there any empirical studies of the amount of diversification of
>  wealthy individuals? I have no problem believing billionaires are
>  fully diversified: a $1B wealth is truly forever. But what about
>  relatively smaller wealths?

it's really easy to diversify, by putting money into a mutual fund.

>  >  Rather, there is a (structural) conflict between the short-term
>  >  individual interests of capitalists of all stripes ("deregulation,
>  >  subsidies for me, etc.") and the long-term collective interests of the
>  >  capitalist class as whole (more stability, preserve the system).
>  >  Financial capitalists are simply one version of the particularistic
>  >  perspective.

>  I think this misses an important distinction. Finance capitalists are
>  a very special kind of capitalist. I think of financiers as skipping
>  the 'C' in the classic M-C-M' formula and operating as M-M' directly.
>  As such their activities (because of the absence of the 'C') are
>  harder to justify on ideological grounds; their profits come too
>  obviously from other people's sweats.

To me, Marx's perspective is more useful. It's not that "finance
capitalists" are a special type; rather, it's _finance capital_
that's special.[*] That is, it's not the finance-oriented individuals
that are relevant here but the social _positions_ within the social
structure and process of capitalism. People move between positions but
the positions remain. There is a segment of the system that focuses on
M-M', yes, but that does not correspond to a specific group of people.

The exception is at the lower levels: it's the employees of financial
corporations who are stuck in the (usually lucrative) niche. The
_owners_, on the other hand, spread their money around a lot. They can
do so because they have a lot of money.

[*] To keep this conversation on track, I'm not using the
Hilferding-Lenin terminology here. "Finance capital" does not refer to
a merger of finance and industrial capital. It just refers to M-M'.

-- 
Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own
way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
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