The Emperor's Tailor: The Economists and the Crash of ‘98

Freeman, Alan (1999): The Emperor's Tailor: The Economists and the Crash of ‘98.

Abstract

The paper examines the the profession of economics in the light of its disarray in the face of the financial crash of 1998

We subject the profession to a theoretical and historical enquiry, examining both its reaction to the empirical facts of its failures, and the manner in which its theoretical categories express the material interests to which it is subjected. The aim is not dismiss the profession and its products as simple apologetics, but to uncover the internal structure of its thought and to propose an alternative, critical standard of scientific conduct for economic enquiry under a market economy.

Keywords: Liquidity, Value, Quantification, MELT, MEL, Money, Labour, Marx, TSSI, Temporalism

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Institution: The University of Greenwich
• Language: English
• Keywords: Liquidity; Value; Quantification; MELT; MEL; Money; Labour; Marx; TSSI; Temporalism
• Subjects: O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development; B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B4 - Economic Methodology > B41 - Economic Methodology; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E3 - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles

References

All working papers and conference papers of the International Working Group on Value Theory (IWGVT) are available on www.greenwich.ac.uk/~fa03/iwgvt Abraham-Frois, G. and Berrebi, E. (1979), Theory of Value, Prices and Accumulation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bortkiewicz, L. von (1952), ‘Value and Price in the Marxian System’ (part I), in International Economic Papers, 1952(2), 5-60. Brewer, A (1995) ‘Marx as an Economist’, History of Political Economy 27:1 Cassidy, John (1997) ‘The Next Thinker: the return of Karl Marx’ in The New Yorker 10 October 1997. Dmitriev, V. K. 1974. Economic Essays on Value, Competition and Utility (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Dore, Mohammed I (1993) The Macrodynamics of Business Cycles: a Comparative Evaluation. Oxford: Blackwell Dow, Sheila (0000) [On Cartesian method]. Duménil , Gérard and Lévy, Dominique (1998), “The conservation of value: a rejoinder to Alan Freeman”, forthcoming in Review of Radical Political Economy. An earlier draft is available as an IWGVT working paper. Duménil, G. 1983. Beyond the Transformation Riddle: A labor theory of value. Science and Society 47:4. Ernst, John R. (1982), ‘Simultaneous Valuation Extirpated: A Contribution to the Critique of the Neo-Ricardian Concept of Value’, Review of Radical Political Economics, 14(2) pp85-94. Foley, D. K. 1982. The Value of Money, the Value of Labor Power, and the Marxian Transformation Problem, Review of Radical Political Economics 14:2. Foley, D. K. 1997. Recent Developments in the Labor Theory of Value. Presented at Eastern Economic Association conference, April, Washington, D.C. Freeman and Carchedi (1996) (eds) Marx and Non-Equilibrium Economics, Cheltenham: Elgar. Freeman, Alan (1996) ‘Price, value and profit – a continuous, general, treatment’ in Freeman and Carchedi (1996) Freeman, Alan (1997a) ‘The Poverty of Nations: Relative Surplus Value, Technical Change and Accumulation in the modern global market’ in LINKS (0000). Freeman, Alan (1997b) ‘If they’re so rich, why aren’t they clever?’, paper to 1997 IWGVT conference Freeman, Alan (1997c) ‘Time, money and the quantification of value’, paper to 1997 IWGVT conference Freeman, Alan (1998) ‘What happens in recessions? A value-theoretic approach to Liquidity Preference’. paper to 1998 EEA conference Giussani, P. 1991-92. ‘The Determination of Prices of Production’, International Journal of Political Economy 21:4. Howard, M. C. and J. E. King. 1992. A History of Marxian Economics: Volume II, 1929-1990 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press). Husson, Michel Kaldor, N(1985) Economics without Equilibrium, New York: M.E.Sharpe Kliman, A. and McGlone, T. (1988), ‘The Transformation non﷓Problem and the non﷓Transformation Problem’, Capital and Class, 35, Summer, pp56﷓83. Kliman, A. J and T. McGlone. 1988. The Transformation Non-Problem and the Non- Transformation Problem, Capital and Class 35. Kliman, A. J. 1997. A Contribution to the Ongoing Inquiry into the Existence of Marx's Marxism. Submitted for discussion to the International Working Group in Value Theory miniconference at the Eastern Economic Association conference, April, Washington, D.C. Kliman, Andrew (1988), ‘The Profit Rate Under Continuous Technological Change’, Review of Radical Political Economics, 20:2 & 3. Kliman, Andrew (1996) ‘Marx vs. the “20th-century Marxists”: a Reply to Laibman’, 1996 IWGVT paper . Kliman, Andrew (1998) ‘The significance of the inconsistency allegations’, 1998 IWGVT conference paper. Kristjansen, Dave (1998) ‘Effective Demand and the Market Price of Production’, 1998 IWGVT conference paper Kuhn, Thomas S. (1962) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Lee, Chai-On. 1993. Marx's Labour Theory of Value Revisited, Cambridge Journal of Economics 17:4. Louça, Francisco (1996). Maldonado-Filho, E. 1997. Release and Tying up of Productive Capital and the “Transformation Problem.” Presented at Eastern Economic Association conference, April, Washington, D.C. Hendry Morgan, Mary (1994) ‘The stamping out of process theory in econometrics’ in Blaug and de Marchi (1994) (eds) ‘Appraising Economic Theories’, Cheltenham:Elgar Morishima, M. 1973. Marx’s Economics: A Dual Theory of Value and Growth (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Moseley, Fred (1993), ‘Marx’s Logical Method and the “Transformation Problem”’, in Moseley (ed.) (1993), Marx’s Method in Capital: a reexamination. Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities. Naples, Michele I. (1989), ‘A Radical Economic Revision of the Transformation Problem’, Review of Radical Political Economics, 21(1﷓2), pp137﷓158. Naples, Michele I. (1996) ‘Time, money, equilibrium: methodology and the labour theory of the profit rate’ in Freeman and Carchedi (1996) Okishio, N. 1993a. A Mathematical Note on Marxian Theorems. In Nobuo Okishio — Essays on Political Economy: Collected Papers, M. Krüger and P. Flaschel, eds. (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang). Okishio, N. 1993b. Three Topics on Marxian Fundamental Theorem. In Nobuo Okishio — Essays on Political Economy: Collected Papers, M. Krüger and P. Flaschel, eds. (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang). Orati, V. (1997) Una Teoria della Teoria Economica, Torino: UTET Ormerod, P (1994) The Death of Economics. London:Faber and Faber Pritchett, Lant (1997) ‘Divergence, Big Time’, in Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1997, pp3-17. Ramos, A. 1997. Labor, Money, Labor-Saving Innovation, and the Falling Rate of Profit. Presented at Eastern Economic Association Convention, April, Washington, D.C. Ramos, A. and A. Rodriguez. 1996. The Transformation of Values into Prices of Production: A different reading of Marx's texts, in Freeman and Carchedi (1996) Rodriguez, A (1996) ‘Money, the postulates of invariance and the transformation of Marx into Ricardo’, in Freeman and Carchedi (1996) Robinson, Joan (1980). Collected Economic Papers V. Boston : MIT Press Rodriguez, Adolfo(1996) ‘Money, the postulates of invariance and the transformation of Marx into Ricardo’, in Freeman and Carchedi (1996) Roemer, J. 1981. Analytical Foundations of Marxian Economic Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Sambursky, S(0000) The Physical World of the Greeks Savran, Sungur Schumpeter, J.A. (1994) History of Economic Analysis London: Routledge Steedman, Ian (1977), Marx after Sraffa. London: New Left Books. Stern, N (1996) Growth Theories, Old and New, and the Role of Agriculture in Economic Development, FAO economic and social development paper #136, Rome: FAO. Thompson (1995) ‘Technical Change, Accumulation and the Rate of Profit’, Review of Radical Political Economy Vol 26(4) pp97-126 Van Parijs, P (1980) ‘The Falling-Rate-ofProfit Theory of Crisis: a Rational Reconstruction by Way of Obituary’, Review of Radical Political Economics, 12 (1), Spring, pp1-16 Veblen: institutionalism and microeconomics Walras, L. (1984) Éléments d’Économie politique pure, Translated by Jaffé as Elements of Pure Economics or the Theory of Social Wealth, London: George Allen and Unwin and Philadelphia: Orion Editions. Weintraub, E.R. (1983) ‘On the existence of a competitive equilibrium, 1930-1954’, Journal of Economic Literature XXI Wolff, R., A. Callari, and B. Roberts. 1984. A Marxian Alternative to the Traditional Transformation Problem. Review of Radical Political Economics 16:2&3. Wolff, R., Roberts, B. and Callari, A. (l982), ‘Marx’s (not Ricardo’s) “Transformation Problem”: A Radical Reconceptualization’, History of Political Economy, Vol 14 No. 4., pp 564-582.