Alternative Visions - What’s Wrong With Economists, Part 2 - 12/04/13

Dr. Jack Rasmus continues his discussion and critique of the fundamental errors of analysis shared by the two wings of contemporary academic economics: the ‘Retro Classicalists’ and ‘Hybrid Keynesians’, focusing on their fetish attachment to money supply, interest rates, and their inadequate shared, misunderstanding of the relationships between money and credit, real and financial asset investment, and the growing role of Finance Capital in the 21stcentury global capitalist economy.  Dr. Rasmus then takes on what he calls the ‘Neo-Marxist’ wing of contemporary Marxist economic analysis, explaining how and why their fixation on the idea of a ‘Falling Rate of Profit’ in real production leads to wrong conclusions that are not even shared by Marx himself.  The neo-marxist notion that falling profits (not supported in fact) are why capitalists have been turning toward finance is shown as logically incorrect, as well as not supportable by either definitions of profits or global data on profits.  Rasmus argues the central concept in Marx is not falling rate of profit, but capital accumulation—that is investment—and that Marx himself began to explore, but did not complete, his analysis of the proper role of finance in capitalist investment and capital accumulation.