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No Shortage of Profit: Technological Change, Chip 'Shortages', and Capital Accumulation in the Semiconductor Business
Full text linkRapid technological change is often touted as a fundamental reality of capitalist societies. It is also often presented as concrete evidence for the supposed progressive improvement of material well-being that characterises the capitalist system of social order. Since its emergence in the mid-20th century, semiconductor technology in many ways exemplifies this reality. Yet the rapid advancement of semiconductor technology has also been accompanied by social conflict. The history of the technology is as much a story of frequent global chip ‘shortages’ and geopolitical disputes as it is one of exponentially growing computational power. The purpose of this study is to examine how the two sides of this story—progress and conflict—are linked. Starting from the theoretical political economic framework of capital as power, I put organized social power at the central of this inquiry. I examine the behaviour of large semiconductor manufacturing firms in an attempt to uncover empirical relationships between capital investment, chip ‘shortages’, prices, and profits. Using quantitative and qualitative analysis, I find that rapid technological change in the business of semiconductors can be both a problem and a solution in the pursuit of differential capital accumulation
ההון ושברו (Capital and its Crisis)
Full text linkהקפיטליזם שולט בעולם. דיונים סוערים מתנהלים בין המלומדים הממסדיים לבין "הביקורתיים" על טיבו של הקפיטליזם הגלובלי. הבעיה היא שטיבו של המוסד המרכזי בקפיטליזם -- ההון -- אינו ידוע. לאחר יותר ממאתיים שנה של התפתחות קפיטליסטית נמרצת לא קיימת תיאוריית הון הגיונית אמפירית -- לא במדע הכלכלה, לא בכלכלה הפוליטית המרקסיסטית ולא במדעי החברה בכלל, בין אם הם פוזיטיביסטיים או ביקורתיים, בין אם הם מודרניים או פוסטיסטיים
הדבר בולט בעת משברי הון. אז נחשפת אוזלת ידם של המומחים והמנהלים האמונים על רזי ההון, ולעתים, ברגעי חרדה, הם אף מתוודים כי אין הם מבינים לא את טיבו של ההון ולא את משבריו. וכאשר מונפים דגלי המחאה והמפגינים יוצאים בזעם אל הרחובות, מתברר שאין להם תוכנית אלטרנטיבית. אין הם מבינים את מהותו של ההון ואת תוצאותיו
הספר מציג דרך חדשה להבנת ההון ומשבריו המחזוריים. ההון אינו עצם מטריאלי ואף לא תהליך ייצור כלכלי. הוא אינו הצבר של אמצעי ייצור או מלאי של ציוד וטכנולוגיה, אלא מוסד מרכזי של יחסי שליטה, המאפשר בין השאר לשלוט בקווי הייצור, במלאי הסחורות ובעבודה השכירה. ההון הוא סימבול פיננסי של יחסי כוח מאורגנים הפרושים ברשת היררכית, ובמרכזם ניצבות קבוצות ההון הדומיננטי ,אותן תשלובות תאגידיות-מדיניות. אלה כפויות לחלק-מחדש את יחסי הכוח לטובתן מול ההתנגדות ההולכת וגוברת, ובצירוף היחסים נוצר משבר ההון. משטר ההון (הקפיטליזם) הוא אופי-כוח מסוג חדש יחסית בהיסטוריה של המין האנושי -- משטר שהתמסד במאות האחרונות והלך והתגבש מחדש לאורך שבעת משברי ההון שהתחוללו מאז תחילת המאה התשע–עשרה
הספר כתוב בשפה תמציתית פשוטה, ללא ערפל אקדמי, ואינו דורש מן הקוראים ידע מוקדם, "כלכלי", מתמטי, או אקדמי. הוא אינו מסתפק בסיסמאות ובהכרזות. הוא מציג לא רק היסטוריה ביקורתית, אם לא קטלנית, של תיאוריות ההון המרכזיות המקובלות, האקדמיות והרדיקליות, אלא גם תיאוריות ומודלים כמותיים אלטרנטיביים של ההון ומשברי ההון אשר יוכלו לשמש את הרוצים בדרך רדיקלית חדשה להריסת משטר ההון ולהחלפתו במשטר אנושי
כותבי הספר, יהונתן ניצן ושמשון ביכלר, הם מרצים בכלכלה פוליטית באוניברסיטאות ובמכללות בקנדה ובישרא
The Business of Strategic Sabotage
Full text linkMarxists love to hate the theory of capital as power, or CasP for short. And they have two good reasons. First, CasP criticizes the logical and empirical validity of the labour theory of value on which Marxism rests. And second, it offers the young at heart a radical, non-Marxist alternative with which to research, understand and contest capitalism. With these reasons in mind, it is only understandable that most Marxists prefer to keep Pandora’s box closed, and few challenge CasP directly.
Sometimes, though, the wall of silence breaks, typically by a lone Marxist who lashes at the ‘idealist’ renegades of forward-looking capitalized power and reiterates the good old ‘material reality’ of backward-looking labour time. Since these occasional critics are often confident in their dogma and rarely bother to understand the CasP research they criticize (let alone the broader body of CasP literature), their critiques scarcely merit a response. But occasionally, they accuse us of empirical wrongdoing – and these charges do call for a reply.
Such accusations are levelled in a recent paper by Nicolas D. Villarreal (2022), titled ‘Capital, Capitalization, and Capitalists: A Critique of Capital as Power Theory’. In his article, Villarreal claims that our empirical analysis of the relation between business power and industrial sabotage in the United States is unpersuasive, to put it politely. He argues that we cherry-pick specific data definitions and smoothing windows to ‘achieve the desired results’; that these ‘results are driven by statistical aberrations’; and that his own choice of variables pretty much invalidates our conclusions.
Unfortunately, Mr. Villarreal’s empirical counter-analysis leaves much to be desired. His ‘reproduction/refutation’ of our work is not only poorly documented, but also uses incorrect variables, including ones that differ from those labelled in his own figures (gross instead of net income, domestic instead of national variables, national categories mixed with domestic ones, etc.). So instead of trying to reverse-engineer his results, here is our own easy-to-follow, step-by-step reply to his complaints. Hopefully, this reply will make future critics a bit more careful with their dismissive arguments
Have We Passed Peak Capitalism?
Full text linkThis paper uses word frequency to track the rise and potential peak of capitalist ideology. Using a sample of mainstream economics textbooks as my corpus of capitalist thinking, I isolate the jargon of these books and then track its frequency over time in the Google English corpus. I also measure the popularity of feudal ideology by applying the same method to a sample of Christian bibles. I find that over the last four centuries, biblical language fell out of favor and was replaced by the language of economics. Surprisingly, however, I find that since the 1980s, the trend has reversed. Today, the language of economics is waning, while biblical language is on the rise. Is this evidence that we’ve passed the peak of capitalist ideology
Costly Efficiencies: Health Care Spending, COVID-19, and the Public/Private Health Care Debate
Full text link* Winner of the 2022 RECASP First Essay Prize *
Proponents of private healthcare often claim that the private sector is more ‘efficient’ at delivering healthcare services. This paper tests the privatization thesis in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a large sample of countries, I investigate how healthcare privatization affects the correlation between COVID-19 death rates and healthcare spending (as a share of GDP). In countries with healthcare that is mostly public, I find no correlation. However, in countries with significant healthcare privatization, I find that greater healthcare spending was associated with more COVID-19 deaths. This result is consistent with the theory of ‘capital as power’, which argues that to earn profits, the private sector seeks to strategically limit the provision of social goods
Global Capital: Political Economy of Capitalist Power (YorkU, GS/POLS 6285 3.0, Graduate, Fall Term, 2022-23)
Full text linkDESCRIPTION
What is capital? Despite centuries of debate, there is no clear answer to this question – and for a good reason. Capital is a polemic term. The way we define it attests our theoretical biases, ideological disposition, view of politics, class consciousness, social position, and more.
Is capital the same as machines, or is it merely a financial asset? Is it a material article or a social process? Is it a static substance or a dynamic entity? The form of capital, its existence as monetary wealth, is hardly in doubt. The problem is with the content, the stuff that makes capital grow – and on this issue there is no agreement whatsoever. For example, does capital accumulate because it is productive, or due to the exploitation of workers? Does capital expand from within capitalism, or does it need non-capitalist institutions like the state and other external forces? Is accumulation synonymous with economic growth, or can capital expand by damaging production and undermining efficiency? What exactly is being accumulated? Does the value of capital represent utility, abstract labour – or perhaps something totally different, such as power or force? What units should we use to measure its accumulation?
Surprisingly, these questions remain unanswered; in fact, with the victory of liberalism, most of them are no longer being asked. However, the silence is incomplete. As crisis and social strife intensify, the questions resurface. The accumulation of capital is the central process of capitalism, and unless we can clarify what that process means, we remain unable to understand our world, let alone change it.
The seminar has two related goals: substantive and pedagogical. The substantive purpose is to tackle the question of capital head on. The course explores a spectrum of liberal and Marxist theories, ideologies and dogmas – as well as a radical alternative to these views. The argument is developed theoretically, historically and empirically. The first part of the seminar provides a critical overview of political economy, examining its historical emergence, triumph and eventual demise. The second part deals with the two ‘materialistic’ schools of capital – the liberal theory of utility and the Marxist theory of labour time – dissecting their structure, strengths and limitations. The third part brings power back in: it analyses the relation between accumulation and sabotage, studies the institutions of the corporation and the state and introduces a new framework – the capitalist mode of power. The fourth and final part offers an alternative approach – the theory of capital as power (or CasP for short) – and illustrates how this approach can shed light on conflict-ridden processes such as corporate merger, stagflation, imperialism and the new wars of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Pedagogically, the seminar seeks to prepare students toward conducting their own independent re-search. Students are introduced to various electronic data sources, instructed in different methods of analysis and tutored in developing their empirical research skills. As the seminar progresses, these skills are used both to assess various theories and to develop the students’ own theoretical/empirical research projects
El Capitalismo Contemporáneo y la Ontología de las Finanzas
Full text linkRESUMEN. Esta tesis es un esfuerzo por desentrañar el papel que juega el campo financiero dentro del proceso de acumulación de capital y la manera en que condiciona el desarrollo de la lucha entre las clases sociales por la distribución de la riqueza y el control político de la comunidad. El punto de partida es la pregunta por la validez de ciertas distinciones fundamentales de la economía política: ¿cabe sostener la distinción entre una economía real y una financiera, entre el valor y el precio, entre la esfera productiva y la esfera de las especulaciones bursátiles? ¿Se sostiene la distinción entre un capitalismo industrial y uno financiero, o entre un capital financiero y uno productivo?
ABSTRACT. This thesis aims to unravel the role played by the financial field within the process of capital accumulation and the way in which it conditions the development of the struggle between social classes for the distribution of wealth and political control of the community. The starting point is the question of the validity of certain fundamental distinctions in political economy: are the distinctions between a real and a financial economy, between value and price, between the productive sphere and the sphere of stock market speculations useful? Does the distinction between an industrial and a financial capitalism, or between a financial and a productive capital, hold?
*** Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 **
The Rise of Corporate Profits in the Time of Covid
No full textSUMMARY
In recent months, Canadians have seen significant price increases in everyday goods. New analysis shows that along with prices increasing, so too have corporate profit margins, which is not a coincidence. In 2021, when Canada was in the middle of the covid pandemic, large corporations in all major sectors of the economy saw their profit margins substantially exceed 20 year averages, with many hitting record levels. The Finance, Insurance & Real Estate Sector (FIRE), which already had the highest sectoral profit margin over the last two decades, also had the biggest increase in 2021—reaching a profit margin of 22%.
As the federal government considers its 2022 budget, it is critically important that both rising profit margins and all-time lows in corporate taxation be addressed. Our previous research shows that in 2021, corporations enjoyed their lowest ever effective income tax rate of 16.6%, which contributed to the sharp rise in corporate profit.
However, the key contributor to the jump in corporate profits is increasing prices. This report indicates that in 2021 corporations brought in unprecedented levels of profit largely by increasing what they charge for their goods and services. This allowed corporations to almost double profit margins in 2021 to 16%, compared to the 9% average for 2002 to 2019.
When corporations choose to raise their prices in order to boost their profit margins, they drive up inflation. While much emphasis is put on inflation being caused by government spending, the corporate pursuit of higher profits through price increases is a much simpler explanation, though more poorly understood and less discussed.
This misunderstanding plays into the hands of individuals, organizations and lobby groups pushing an austerity agenda. Such an agenda would have a range of negative repercussions on the Canadian economy, while benefiting only the very rich.
The more Canadians understand what causes prices to rise, the better we can respond in a manner that helps the overall economy, as opposed to enriching only a fortunate few.
Beyond driving inflation and reducing the affordability of goods and services, higher corporate profit margins also contribute to rising inequality. The overwhelming majority of corporate owners are part of the 1% and they receive the majority of capital income.
Fortunately, a number of reasonable, immediately applicable solutions exist, including bringing corporate income tax rates closer to where they used to be, applying an excess profits tax on top pandemic profits, closing the most egregious tax loopholes, and improving corporate financial transparency
Carrying the Elephants
Full text linkThe big picture is unambiguous: humanity is undermining the planetary ecosystem, and the deterioration continues unhindered. According to the 2019 Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, since 1970, the capacity of nature to sustain contributions to good quality of life trends downward in 14 out of 18 different categories being analysed, with many species dwindling or becoming extinct. And if this isn’t enough, the burning of fossil fuels is believed to alter the climate, most likely for the worse.
At stake, then, is the survival of planetary life as we know it, humanity included. And in this dire context, it is worthwhile reading Romain Gary’s great 1956 novel, The Roots of Heaven (translated into English in 1958). This Goncourt Prize book is one of the first ‘ecological novels’. It tells the story of a Frenchman, Morel, a former concentration-camp prisoner and decorated war hero on a mission to save the hunted elephants of Africa.
It is a complex, intellectually gripping story, weaving key issues of the time – from postwar global politics and the nuclear arms race to the clash of colonialism and liberation movements to culture, religion and philosophy – and its broad sweep is narrated with the sensitivity, irony and occasional wishful thinking of a great humanitarian.
And it is this emphasis on humanity that makes the book so important
Das Ritual der Kapitalisierung (The Ritual of Capitalization)
No full textWenn man genau hinhört, kann man zuhören, wie Jeff Bezos immer reicher wird. Da ist es schon wieder, dieses Geräusch. Eine weitere Milliarde in Bezos‘ Kassen. Lassen Sie uns diesen Klang des Geldes mit ein paar Zahlen belegen. Seit 2017 ist das Nettovermögen von Bezos um etwa 4 Millionen Dollar pro Stunde gewachsen – das ist etwa das 500.000-fache des US-Mindestlohns. In normalen Zeiten wäre diese Anhäufung von Vermögen absurd. Heute, da viele Arbeitnehmer aufgrund einer schweren Pandemie ihre Arbeit verlieren, ist sie obszön.
Bezos steht zwar für den Gipfel des kapitalistischen Exzesses, aber sein Reichtum ist Teil einer längeren Geschichte. In den letzten vier Jahrzehnten sind die Aktienkurse in die Höhe geschossen, während die Löhne stagnierten. Was hat dieser Trend zu bedeuten? In diesem Beitrag möchte ich dem Aktienmarkt auf den Grund gehen. Doch zunächst werde ich erklären, was der Aktienmarkt nicht ist: Er ist kein Indikator für die Produktionskapazität. Er ist auch kein „fiktives Kapital“. Was ist er dann?
Die Börse, so argumentieren Jonathan Nitzan und Shimshon Bichler, ist die Art und Weise, wie Kapitalisten ihre Macht quantifizieren. Um zu verstehen, wovon Nitzan und Bichler sprechen, werden wir das Ritual entlarven, das unsere Gesellschaftsordnung bestimmt – das Ritual der Kapitalisierung. Lesen Sie weiter, um die rote Pille zu schlucken und den Schleier der kapitalistischen Ideologie zu lüften