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Financialization, the Great Recession, and the rate of profit: profitability trends in the US corporate business sector, 1946-2011

Kalogerakos, Themistoklis LU (2013) EKHR61 20131
Department of Economic History
Abstract
The tendential fall in the rate of profit lies in the center of a long-lasting debate among Marxist scholarship on its centrality and empirical relevance in the investigation of structural crises. Without neglecting the financial aspect of the current crisis, which is covered in the vast majority of academic accounts, we try to discover its underlying roots in the entire spectrum of capitalist production in the US, in reference with that debate. Our empirical evidence indicates that the US economy experiences an inability to recover profit rates to the high levels of the first postwar decades on a sustainable basis. It is proposed that this is due to the reluctance of policy makers to allow the vast destruction of unproductive capital,... (More)
The tendential fall in the rate of profit lies in the center of a long-lasting debate among Marxist scholarship on its centrality and empirical relevance in the investigation of structural crises. Without neglecting the financial aspect of the current crisis, which is covered in the vast majority of academic accounts, we try to discover its underlying roots in the entire spectrum of capitalist production in the US, in reference with that debate. Our empirical evidence indicates that the US economy experiences an inability to recover profit rates to the high levels of the first postwar decades on a sustainable basis. It is proposed that this is due to the reluctance of policy makers to allow the vast destruction of unproductive capital, because such a process entails a potential systemic risk for the established socioeconomic and political status-quo. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Kalogerakos, Themistoklis LU
supervisor
organization
course
EKHR61 20131
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
Falling rate of profit, US economy, structural crisis, Great Recession, Marx, financialization, profitability trends
language
English
id
4057621
date added to LUP
2013-10-24 11:12:21
date last changed
2013-10-24 11:12:21
@misc{4057621,
  abstract     = {{The tendential fall in the rate of profit lies in the center of a long-lasting debate among Marxist scholarship on its centrality and empirical relevance in the investigation of structural crises. Without neglecting the financial aspect of the current crisis, which is covered in the vast majority of academic accounts, we try to discover its underlying roots in the entire spectrum of capitalist production in the US, in reference with that debate. Our empirical evidence indicates that the US economy experiences an inability to recover profit rates to the high levels of the first postwar decades on a sustainable basis. It is proposed that this is due to the reluctance of policy makers to allow the vast destruction of unproductive capital, because such a process entails a potential systemic risk for the established socioeconomic and political status-quo.}},
  author       = {{Kalogerakos, Themistoklis}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Financialization, the Great Recession, and the rate of profit: profitability trends in the US corporate business sector, 1946-2011}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}