Value and Crisis

Alfredo Saad-Filho is Professor of Political Economy at SOAS University of London. He is co-author of Marx’s Capital and Brazil: Neoliberalism versus Democracy (Pluto Press, 2017), and numerous works on Marxist political economy, political economy of development, neoliberalism, democracy, and alternative economic policies.

• Acknowledgements Introduction 1 Method 2 The Theory of Value 3 Systems of Accumulation 4 Neoliberalism 5 Outline of the Book Part 1: Essays on the Theory of Value1 Marxist Economics 1 The Method and Approach of Marxist Political Economy 2 The Labour Theory of Value 3 Commodities, Labour and Value 4 Capital and Capitalism 5 From Value to Surplus Value 6 Profit and (Increasing) Exploitation 7 Marxist Political Economy, Laws of Development and Contemporary Capitalism 8 Conclusion 2 The Relevance of Marx’s Theory of Value 1 Interpretations of Marx’s Theory of Value 1.1  Traditional Marxism 1.2  Sraffian Analyses 1.3  Value Form Theories 1.4  The ‘New Interpretation’ 2 Value Theory and Class Analysis 2.1  Principles 2.2  Implications 3 Conclusion 3 Labour, Money and ‘Labour-Money’: A Review of Marx’s Critique of John Gray’s Monetary Analysis 1 Labour, Money, Exploitation 2 Marx on Labour and Money 3 Money, Value, and Price 4 The Other Functions of Money 5 Labour-Money in Retrospect 6 Conclusion 4 Capital Accumulation and the Composition of Capital 1 Capital and Exploitation 2 Understanding the Composition of Capital 3 Production and the Composition of Capital 4 Capital Accumulation 5 Conclusion5 The ‘Transformation Problem’ 1 The ‘Problem’ 2 Alternative Interpretations 2.1  Neoclassical and Sraffian 2.2  Value-Form Theories 2.3  Dynamic Analysis 3 Marx’s Transformation: A Review 4 The Transformation and its Method 5 Conclusion 6 Transforming the Transformation Problem: Why the ‘New Interpretation’ is a Wrong Turning 1 The ‘New Interpretation’: A Simple Formal Presentation 2 Value of Money 3 Value of Labour Power 4 Structure, Sequence and Dynamics 5 Conclusion7 The Supply of Credit Money and Capital Accumulation: A Critical View of Post-Keynesian Analysis 1 The Fundamental Process of Endogenous Money Creation 2 Commodity and Credit Money Systems 3 Money and Inflation 4 Two Steps Forward – One Step Back 4.1  The Origin and Role of Money in the Economy 4.2  Horizontal Money Supply 4.3  Inflation 5 Conclusion: What is Important for the Way Ahead? 8 Inflation Theory: A Critical Literature Review and a New Research Agenda 1 Conflict and Inflation 1.1  Conflict Theories 1.2  Assessment 2 Monopolies, Underconsumption, and Inflation 2.1  Inflation Theory 2.2  Assessment 3 Credit, Extra Money, and Inflation 3.1  Money and Credit 3.2  Extra Money Inflation 3.3  Inconvertibility and Inflation 3.4  Assessment 4 Conclusion Part 2: Essays on Contemporary Capitalism9 Anti-capitalism: A Marxist Introduction 1 Capitalism and Anti-Capitalism 2 September 11 and Beyond 3 Four Pressing Issues 3.1  Neoliberalism 3.2  Globalisation 3.3  Corporate Power 3.4  Democracy 4 The Way Ahead 5 Leaving Capitalism Behind 10 Neoliberalism 1 Neoliberal Ideas 2 Policy Shifts and Institutional Changes 3 Classes and Class Struggle 4 Neoliberalism, Financialisation and Globalisation 5 Contradictions and Limitations 11 Thirteen Things You Need to Know About Neoliberalism 1 A New Stage 2 An Ideology? 3 A Reaction? 4 Markets and States 5 Financialisation 6 Policy Changes 7 The Balance of Power 8 Scholarship, Policy and Practice 9 Two Phases 10 Variegated Neoliberalism 11 Everyday life 12 Growth, Volatility and Crises 13 Alternatives 12 Democracy Against Neoliberalism 1 Capitalism and Democracy 2 Democracy in the Age of Neoliberalism 3 The Limitations of Neoliberal Democracy 4 Economic and Political Imbalances 5 Globalism and (Nation-)States 6 New Authoritarianism 7 Transcending Neoliberalism through Radical Democracy 8 Conclusion 13 Monetary Policy and Neoliberalism 1 Monetary Policy for Mature Neoliberalism 2 Inflation Targeting and Central Bank Independence 3 The New Monetary Policy Consensus in Practice 4 The Performance of Inflation-Targeting Regime and Central Bank Independence 5 Costs of the New Monetary Policy Consensus 5.1  The Cost of High Interest Rates 5.2  The Cost of Conflicts between Inflation Targeting and Balance of Payments Equilibrium 5.3  The Cost of Financial Instability 5.4  The Cost of Central Bank ‘Independence’ 6 The Impact of the Global Crisis 7 Conclusion 14 Neoliberal Development and Its Critics 1 Neoliberalism and Its Critics 2 Neoliberalism and Development 3 Neoliberalism, Politics and Development 4 Conclusion15 CrisisinNeoliberalism or CrisisofNeoliberalism?1 Neoliberalism and Financialisation 2 Financialisation and Social Discipline 3 Neoliberalism’s Contradictions 4 Not Moving Forward 5 Coming Out of Left Field References Index

"In his new book, Value and Crisis, Alfredo Saad-Filho shows that there is a close relationship between neoliberalism and capitalism...[He] has done Marxism a great favour by providing us with some of the clearest theoretical work on neoliberalism to date. The book would be appropriate for a course on international political economy, as well as in Marxist study groups. Value and Crisis is one of the finest works of Marxist scholarship on neoliberalism, and should be studied by every student of Marxism."—Fabian Van Onzen, Marx and Philosohpy Review of Books