Money as a Means of Payment

Chapter 8: Money as a Means of Payment

Credit relations separate the act of buying from the act of paying. Therefore, the development of credit gives rise to a new function of money: money as a means of payment.

Syria Falls to Pro-Imperialist Forces

On December 8, 2024, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s government collapsed before an offensive of U.S.-backed HTS rebels. The rebels call themselves Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham [HTS, in English: Organization for the Liberation of the Levant].

Assad was forced to flee the country after the Syrian Arab army put up little resistance to the pro-U.S.-NATO rebel offensive, ultimately finding refuge in Russia. HTS’s central leader is Ahmed al Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammad al Julani. HTS consider themselves Sunni Muslims strongly opposed to other Islamic sects, such as the Shia and Alawites, as well as to other religions, including Christians and Druze. According to the HTS, all these religions and sects worship the “one true God,” in the wrong way.

Previously, al Sharaa was a member of al-Qaeda, the group founded by Osama bin Laden — the same group credited with the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon building on 9/11/2001. The attacks killed thousands of people in the United States and were the declared target of George W. Bush’s “war on terror.” But times have changed, and today, HTS and al Sharaa are pictured by the imperialists and their media as moderates who can bring Western-style democracy and religious tolerance to the Syrian people.

When the media describes a group as moderate, it means they are doing what the U.S. imperialist world empire wants them to do. During the final days of the HTS advance to Damascus, the Israeli air force provided them with air support. U.S.-supplied Israeli forces bombed military bases and the headquarters of Syrian intelligence in the center of Damascus. The Israelis struck bases that housed Syrian troops and stockpiles of weapons that the Syrian army might have used to defend Damascus (this included the Mezzah Air Base).

How money emerges out of the simple exchanges of commodities

Chapter 7: How money emerges out of the simple exchanges of commodities

In Chapter I, Volume I of Capital, Marx presents the following equation of exchange: 20 yards of linen = one coat

For example, say I have produced 20 yards of linen. Under the prevailing conditions of exchange, I can barter the 20 yards of linen for exactly one coat of a given type. The equal sign assumes that, in some sense, 20 yards of linen are the same as one coat. But exactly what is being equated here?

Do crises originate in the real or the monetary economy?

Section 2: The Form of Value — Money

Introduction: Do crises originate in the real or the monetary economy?

In the wake of the Great Depression, progressive economists played down the importance of monetary policy as opposed to fiscal policy. Instead, the progressive economists of the New Deal and post-New Deal eras saw the source of capitalist economic instability in either the instability of private investment or its chronic insufficiency. Progressives gave little weight to the importance of what is called monetary policy – the policies of the central bank. Instead, progressive economists emphasized the importance of fiscal policy. Fiscal policy refers to the central government’s taxation, spending, and borrowing policies. This view is supported by the belief that economic crises such as the one that led to the Great Depression arise in the sphere of production and not in circulation.

Expanded Reproduction

Chapter 6: Expanded Reproduction

According to Marx, the capitalist mode of production can, in the long run, exist only as a system of expanded reproduction. However, expanded reproduction can only take place if certain proportions are maintained between Department I, which produces the means of production, and Department II, which produces the means of (personal) consumption. These proportions must be maintained in terms of both use value and value.

Missiles, Minerals, and Money

There have been a series of dramatic developments over the last several weeks. The most dangerous being the collapse of Syria’s Baath Party government and its replacement by imperialist-backed rebels who emerged out of Al Qaeda and ISIS. This removes Syria from the axis of resistance that supported the Palestinian resistance.

We have also seen an imperialist-backed attempt to overthrow the government of the country of Georgia, and in Romania, a right-wing, anti-NATO candidate won. The U.S.-NATO-backed Romanian regime solved this problem by having the constitutional court throw out the election.

There has also been an attempted coup by South Korea’s president to restore the dictatorship that dominated the country before 1987.

Disproportionality

Chapter 5: Disproportionality

Disproportionality was a popular crisis theory among Marxists of the Second International era that preceded World War I — from Engels’ death in 1895 to 1914. It is less popular among Marxists today, at least judging from the Internet, where the seemingly incompatible “not enough” surplus value or “too much” surplus value/underconsumptionist theories are fighting it out.

Production and Reproduction

Chapter 4: Production and Reproduction

The capitalist mode of production and, indeed, all economic systems involve not only production but reproduction. What is the difference between production and reproduction? Let’s take any factory — for example, a garment shop that specializes in belt production. In order to produce the belts, the boss — industrial capitalist — needs workers, a building, raw materials in the form of leather, electricity to run the shop’s machines and provide lighting, and so on. The industrial capitalist then must combine these forces of production to produce the belts. This is an example of production.

The Falling Rate of Profit

Chapter 3: The Falling Rate of Profit

Is the Falling Rate of Profit the Key to Periodic Economic Crises?

Among Marxists today, the tendency of the rate of profit to fall is perhaps the most popular explanation for capitalism’s cyclical economic crises, with underconsumption a distant second. In its more naive forms, this theory leaves out the question of realizing surplus value altogether.

Donald Trump, Once Again the Chief of World Imperialism

We can’t help it! Donald John Trump is again the chief of world imperialism. Is Trump a good representative of the U.S. capitalist ruling class? He is not only a capitalist but also a large landowner.

Given that the primary focus of this blog is economics, it is essential to address both of Trump’s roles.

The Trump Organization, his main enterprise, appropriates surplus value by buying land in Manhattan (New York City) and other large urban areas. It hires construction companies to erect skyscrapers that increase in height in alignment with the continually escalating urban ground rents. As these rents climb, the Trump family gets richer.