Description
Book SynopsisThe Law of Accumulation and Breakdown of the Capitalist System, Being also a Theory of Crisis was Henryk Grossman’s most important, influential, and also most denounced work. As official Communist economic thought was petrifying, to comply with the needs of the Stalinist state in Russia, Grossman’s book challenged the developing dogma. Combining Marx's method and insights with a comprehensive assessment of the very substantial literature on crisis theory, Grossman demonstrated how the capitalist system, even under supposedly ideal conditions, will break down economically. Grossman’s recovery of Marx’s explanations for capitalism’s crises and tendency to break down is as timely as ever, and thanks to Jairus Banaji and Rick Kuhn, this wonderful, first full English translation is now available.
The Law of Accumulation is the third of four volumes of Grossman's works.
Table of Contents Acknowledgements
List of Figures and Tables
Editor’s Introduction
Rick Kuhn
Context
Grossman’s Argument
Initial Reception, Translations, Republications and Later Literature
Criticisms and Responses
Conventions
Introduction
1 The Downfall of Capitalism in Previous Discussions
1 The Points at Issue
2 The Conception of Breakdown in Previous Literature
3 The Final Abandonment of Marx’s Theory of Accumulation and Breakdown by Karl Kautsky
2 The Law of Capitalist Breakdown
1 Is There a Theory of Breakdown in Marx?
2 Preliminary Methodological Remarks. Economic Coordinate System: The Necessity of Simplifying Assumptions; The Assumption of Constant Prices as the Starting Point for the Analysis (Constant Value of Money; Equilibrium State of the Capitalist Mechanism, under Which Prices Coincide with Values; Exclusion of Competition)
3 The Equilibrium Theory of the Neo-harmonists. Otto Bauer’s Reproduction Schema
4 The Conditions and Tasks of the Analysis Using the Schema
5 Why Were the Classical Economists Disquieted by the Fall in the Rate of Profit. Despite Growth in the Mass of Profit?
6 The Views of the Classical Economists on the Future of Capitalism, Ricardo. and John Stuart Mill
7 Marx’s Theory of Accumulation and Breakdown
8 Marx’s Theory of Breakdown Is Simultaneously a Theory of Crisis
9 An Anti-Critical Interlude
10 The Logical and Mathematical Basis of the Law of Breakdown
11 Causes of the Misunderstanding of Marx’s Theory of Accumulation and Breakdown
12 The Factors of the Breakdown Tendency. The Problem of the Periodicity of Crises. The Course of the Cycle and the Problem of Establishing the Duration of Its Phases – The Cycle Research Institutes’ Symptomatology. – The Provisional Exclusion of Credit. – The Tempo of Capital Accumulation (in the Upswing) and the Extent of Population Growth
13 The Crisis and Underconsumption Theory. – Incorporating Credit into the Analysis. – The Cycle within the ‘Three Markets’: The Impetus to the Boom within the Sphere of Production (Business). The Spillover of the Wave Movement from Production into the Money Market (Money), Finally to the Stock Exchange (Speculation)
14 The Elasticity of Accumulation. The Problem of Sudden Leaps and One-Sided Development in Individual Branches of Production. The Relationship between the Extent of the Apparatus of Production and the Extent of Sales Turnover
15 Fetters on the Development of the Productive Forces under Capitalism
16 Marx’s Theory of Insufficient Valorisation Due to Overaccumulation and Luxemburg’s Theory of the Impossibility of ‘Realising Surplus Value’ under Capitalism
3 Modifying Countertendencies
Verification of the Abstract Theoretical Analysis by Concrete Appearances of Capitalist Reality
1 Restoring Profitability through Internal Structural Changes in the Mechanism of Capitalist Countries
2 The World Market
Concluding Observations
1 The Breakdown Tendency and the Class Struggle (Marx’s Theory of Wages. The Factors That Determine the Wages. The Historical Tendency of Wage Levels. The Class Struggle and the Final Goal)
2 The Collapse of Capitalism and the General Cartel
Appendix: Corrections of Grossman’s Calculations
References
Index, including Abbreviations and Micro Biographies
