MARX & MMT, PART 3 — Finer Points of Marx’s Conception of Labor and His Aggregate Equalities

So far, the intention has been to give a sense of the relevance and accessibility of Marx’s macroeconomic ideas. Rather than jump straight into his theory, with what might appear to be strangely named variables and foreign concepts, it seemed desirable to spell out simple connections between Marx’s categories and those of non-Marxist economics. Doing so meant glossing over some of the finer points of Marx’s definitions and categories. The first task of this post is to address a few of these. Attention then turns to distinguishing value from price and introducing Marx’s three aggregate equalities. The implications of Marx’s equalities are powerful, but their validity depends on how his theory is interpreted. The final section of the post will highlight the major points of contention. This will provide context for two upcoming posts, which consider the temporal-single system interpretation (TSSI) and a possible rationale for its adoption in this series.
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MARX & MMT, PART 2 – A Connection Between the Markup, Exploitation, Currency Value and MELT

The first post in this series distinguished between three types of macro measures: ‘monetary’, ‘real use-value’ and ‘real labor-time’ magnitudes. Under simplifying assumptions, the post spelled out basic connections between these different kinds of variables. The same assumptions are retained in this post to highlight a connection between the aggregate markup (Kalecki), the rate of surplus value (Marx), value of the currency (MMT) and the monetary expression of labor time (MELT).

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MARX & MMT, PART 1 – Three Kinds of Macro Variables

I am interested in exploring what seems to be a basic compatibility between MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) and Marx. Compatibility of two theories, of course, does not require agreement, and there is no suggestion that either MMT proponents or Marxists will find a synthesis between the two approaches fruitful. Compatibility simply means that the two approaches are mutually consistent and that, if desired, the insights of both could be integrated into a unified understanding of the capitalist economy. At the same time, there is no claim that the idea of a connection is new. I have linked in the past to work by Modern Monetary Theorists Randall Wray and Mathew Forstater concerned with various aspects of Marx’s theory, and Bill Mitchell has often noted in posts at billy blog an influence on his work of Marx. Suffice to say that, personally, I think a synthesis could prove worthwhile. Some MMTers may agree, some not, and likewise for Marxists.

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