Any Marxist books on Finance?

[RadioRaheem84]

It seems that a lot of my banker friends who are Economist reading, policy wonkish, and finance minded seem to always school me in regards to investment, banking and the market in general.

Any Marxist book that tackle finance today? That tackle the financial crisis?

[Decolonize The Left]

It seems that a lot of my banker friends who are Economist reading, policy wonkish, and finance minded seem to always school me in regards to investment, banking and the market in general.

Any Marxist book that tackle finance today? That tackle the financial crisis?

Well in all honesty you should know about investments, banking, and the market in general. These issues play a central role in almost every single working class person's life. But to learn about them I'm pretty sure you'll have to read non-Marxist literature.

[RadioRaheem84]

Well in all honesty you should know about investments, banking, and the market in general. These issues play a central role in almost every single working class person's life. But to learn about them I'm pretty sure you'll have to read non-Marxist literature.

I am sure there has to be at least one Marxist who's written about it.

Mostly want to learn about panics, crashes, cycles from the pov of investments, finance, etc.

[MarxSchmarx]

It seems that a lot of my banker friends who are Economist reading, policy wonkish, and finance minded seem to always school me in regards to investment, banking and the market in general.

Any Marxist book that tackle finance today? That tackle the financial crisis?

The Korean/British economist Ha Joon Chang is probably the most lucid, effective analyst of contemporary market economies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ha-Joon_Chang
I'm not sure it's quite correct to call him "Marxist" although he is incredibly well versed in that literature and doesn't shy away from using Marxian concepts in his writing. His background in development economics makes him actually quite adept at discussing alternative economic perspectives.

I'd start with him if you are interested in reading books. There are of course economists who write in specialist publications. A fairly indepth and surprisingly accessible article from a Marxian perspective about the 2008 crisis, for example, is in:

Kotz, D. 2009. The Financial and Economic Crisis of 2008: A Systemic Crisis of Neoliberal Capitalism. Review of Radical Political Economics 41: 305
http://rrp.sagepub.com/content/41/3/305.short?rss=1&amp%3bssource=mfr

[jookyle]

If you want to learn about how liberal economics works (and so you critique them) you need to read about liberal and neo-liberal economics. Read Smith,Hayek,Keynes, and Friedman for a start. You should at least get the gist of it. And to get ahold on modern situations, pick up a copy of the economist every now and then, scan through the Wall Street Journal. Not only will you learn about it, but you'll learn how they talk about it, and you'll see for yourself how messed up the whole system is for yourself instead of just reading about how messed up it is.

[blake 3:17]

I'd suggest David McNally's Global Slump.

I found David Harvey's The Enigma of Capital very useful in understanding why finance capital needs to circulate.

A very interesting take on the crisis by a Wall Street insider is A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers by Lawrence McDonald. It's very readable and helped me understand some of the extremely convoluted practices of finance capital. There's very strange stuff that goes on in making money in failing industries and stagnant economies. And the account of the aggressive marketing of subprime mortgages is so awful.

[subcp]

The prominent Second International economist Hilferding periodized capital in such a way that he viewed 'Finance Capital' as the 'latest phase' of capitalist development (circa 1910). His book is just called "Finance Capital", Rudolf Hilferding Finance Capital A Study of the Latest Phase of Capitalist Development.

It's available online.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/hilferding/1910/finkap/index.htm

Some turn of the century socialists/communists mention him in polemics and various articles, as he was up there with Kautsky as a thinker in the SPD. The people who have talked about reading his work seem better for doing so (more informed), but I don't think much of what he did (and it was a lot) is particularly groundbreaking or worth re-uncovering.

Regarding modern financialization of capital, the communisation groups (non-Tiqqun) have written about it a bit, in their very lucid analysis of modern capitalism. I recommend the printed version of Sic, Issue #1, very highly. But it is also available online for free; a few of the articles in it talk a bit about finance specifically as it relates to the reconstruction of capitalism after the late 60's.

http://sic.communisation.net/

The printed text is probably the best looking print publication I've seen from a Marxist group, cheap too.

[RadioRaheem84]

Thanks guys! For the most I've noticed that the MR School has been tackling finance too but it's not as concrete as I had hoped which I why I am still searching.

I don't just want to learn the basics of it. I have a fundamental understanding of the principles and basics of it, I just want to read a Marxist critique of it. Why are oil prices the way they are?Explanation of commodities bubbles? Learn about bubbles like Long Term Capital Management, the Tequila Crisis, and the housing crisis. I feel as though even when leftists touch on this is just a re-hash of what they read about it and explain it in the same way liberals do. Is there not a Marxist critique of finance capital? At least one that is really relevant. I hate talking to my banker friends and they look at me with blank stares when I talk to them about imperialism or whatnot when talking about the market. I need something that talks in business logic while at the same time showing the flaws in it's presumptions.

[subcp]

In that case, Andrew Kliman's "The Failure of Capitalist Production," is an excellent text; it documents the falling rate of profit phenomenon since the 1940's (the post-war boom) to 2011, and also talks about the financial arrangements and changes thereof which create the environment for pump-primed asset bubbles.

[RadioRaheem84]

In that case, Andrew Kliman's "The Failure of Capitalist Production," is an excellent text; it documents the falling rate of profit phenomenon since the 1940's (the post-war boom) to 2011, and also talks about the financial arrangements and changes thereof which create the environment for pump-primed asset bubbles.

Really? Can you explain a little further? Is it available online?

[blake 3:17]

Is there not a Marxist critique of finance capital? At least one that is really relevant. I hate talking to my banker friends and they look at me with blank stares when I talk to them about imperialism or whatnot when talking about the market. I need something that talks in business logic while at the same time showing the flaws in it's presumptions.

It sounds you are trying to use a general theory to address very particular issues. If it's something very specific, then just google it.

A few other resources

http://www.progressive-economics.ca/ is Canadian based and focused, but puts stuff out on international issues.

Paul Krugman is a self defined liberal but he's very good at explaining very complex economic policy: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/

http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/ is very good, but you need to subscribe. A subscription is a donation, so...

http://www.thenation.com/economy might be useful.

[subcp]

Sure, Andrew Kliman self-identifies as a member of the Marxist-Humanist Initiative (a split from News & Letters), in the tradition of the Johnson-Forest tendency (post-Trotskyism). I find a lot of his articles on the MHI site to be thoughtful and interesting. I don't know if his book is available online for free, but the print copy is inexpensive. It's relatively short, but he takes several varieties of economic interpretation to demonstrate conclusively that the tendency for the rate of profit to fall is a real phenomenon, and linked to capitalist crisis. He presents economic data spanning the last century, but especially since the 1940's to the current day, to prove that the rate of profit overall for capitalism has fallen- and that the Keynesian policies have only stagnated the economy and promoted inflation instead of 'curing crisis' as it was purported to do in the post-war era. He describes in detail the latest crisis, and specific financialization aspects of the modern economy/modern capitalism that lead to an environment friendly to pump-primed asset bubbles (the dotcom boom and bust, the mortgage crisis, etc.).

It's a great resource. I do recommend the articles in Sic if you are going to read it- they also pay attention to the FROP and the crisis of capitalism starting in the 1960's which resulted in capitalist restructuring in the 1970's to the present (what is called neo-liberalism, asset bubbles, stagflation, etc. as the result of this restructuring). Combined they give a pretty balanced view of modern capitalism and how it has changed since the early 20th century, and the specific instances of crisis, etc.

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

It's a little dated since finance has come very far since the 1800s, but Marx himself had things to say on the financial issues of his time. He was quite an expert on how the British free market economy was run. I seem to remember him talking about Bank of England policies, interest rates, and the reason why finance capital develops. He also goes into how finance capital interacts with the productive side of capital, and why the productive side would ever seek investments from the financiers. I believe he discusses this in Das Kapital and the Grundrisse.

I guess what you're looking for more is how finance capital moves around these days and the complex financial commodities which have become the basis of so much of our economy. For that, Marx might have died too soon to give an analysis of current conditions, considering how much has changed.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

I've been reading books like The Enigma of Capital by Harvey and Zombie Capitalism by Chris Harman(which does have a whole section on the current financial crisis that I haven't gotten to yet). Have a lot of talk about finances and the latter especially.

[Popular Front of Judea]

I would encourage reading the Financial Times -- for everyone in fact. The Wall Street Journal has gone downhill since Murdoch took it over -- the editorial page is now bleeding over into the front page.

[The Idler]

Ball Buster? True Confessions of a Marxist Businessman

[blake 3:17]

I would encourage reading the Financial Times -- for everyone in fact. The Wall Street Journal has gone downhill since Murdoch took it over -- the editorial page is now bleeding over into the front page.

One of my dearest comrades only subscribes to the Financial Times -- it's the most thorough and honest.

The Globe and Mail publishes a monthly magazine Report on Business, which I really enjoy and has very in depth pieces on particular policies, or companies, or individuals. Is there an American equivalent?

For years I've thought about subscribing to the Economist, but it's a bit expensive, and so much to read. I wish there were a subscription where you just got every third issue, but I don't know of any publication that works that way...

New Internationalist is also very good and covers topics fairly thoroughly. It also tends to have a fair number of maps and graphs that help one synthesize pretty complicated stuff fairly painlessly. The site is OK, but the magazine is much better. http://newint.org/

[thethinveil]

I am also very interested in what Marxists have been doing. It seem I can get them commenting on literature but not economics in the academia - Richard Wolff, a Marxist economist, who has studied at Harvard, Yale and Stanford, has said that never in studying economics was he ever required to read Marx. Which is strange because most undergraduate should read Capital and the Manifesto.

They aren't marxists but I hear people say good things about the website Naked Capitalism which is like ranked number 3 in economics blogs. I think it advocates for a new system besides "crony capitalism" which leads me to think that it is more progressive minded. Same goes probably for the rec of The Nation's coverage of the economy. And then there is also a magazine called, "Dollars and Sense" that used to be around, that has a progressive economic bent.

Anyways if people can people to Marxists in particular that would be great because I have been looking for something besides Neo-Keynesian economics.

[subcp]

Kliman is a staunch Marxist and attacks all of the so-called or nominally Marxist economists (or who publish economic books) for their neo-Keynesianism (such as the big underconsumptionist school of thought).

Example:


Some prominent Marxist and radical economists (e.g., Duménil and Lévy 2004, Husson 2008, Moseley 2008) have argued that “neoliberal” policies and increased exploitation have led to a substantial recovery of profitability since the early 1980s. They therefore dismiss the idea that a persistent fall in profitability is an underlying cause of capitalism’s latest economic crisis. Instead, they typically regard the crisis as an irreducibly financial one–that is, a crisis caused by the “financialization” of capitalism and macroeconomic difficulties resulting from it, as well as by more immediate financial-sector phenomena. This paper will challenge that thesis.http://www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org/economic-crisis/appearance-and-essence-neoliberalism-financialization-and-the-underlying-crisis-of-capitalist-production.html

Edit: and a short review of non-Marxist economists of the early 20th century by one of (I think the largest) Bordigist parties:

http://international-communist-party.org/CommLeft/CL21_22.htm#RG90


Marxist Economy The first report we heard, on the theme of Marxist economy, continued the brief survey, and not-too-difficult criticism, of the twentieth century 'vulgar' economists. Having looked at the Keynesian school, we touched this time on the work of Schumpeter and Sraffa, considered by the press and 'educated public' as important innovators in the realm of economic doctrine.
Both belong to the world of 'official' academic economics, i.e. economics supported and financed at a State level. The first example is the English 'Cambridge school', an institute specifically entrusted for more than a century – backed up with plentiful supplies of money and prestige – with the sole task of covering up the bourgeoisie's guilty neurosis about Marx, and catering for their need to ignore, to bury in confused concepts, and to obfuscate and misconstrue his economic doctrine. We already knew this, but a few, slightly more in-depth readings – and there aren't many of those – certainly seem to confirm this.

[Noa Rodman]

This text of one of the soviet experts gives a decent rundown of non-Marxist literature:

http://libcom.org/library/credit-romanticism-golden-pincers-zachary-atlas

I just noticed that Routledge republished World Finance Since 1914 (http://books.google.com/books?id=WOE1oy4xzGgC) by Paul Einzig, not a Marxist, but neither are most self-proclaimed marxists so anyway.

Hilferding regularly wrote on financial news after 1933 in the press, but no follow up on his Finance capital I'm afraid. He was finance minister twice, here he is at Genoa with Rakovsky and Joffe:


http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b9037522m/f1.highres
In Italian there might be relevant publication of his articles: Il problema storico: stato e societa nella dimensione del XX secolo

[cantwealljustgetalong]

I second Kliman's book. He has a method rooted in the most stable modern form of Marxian economics and writes very clearly.

[Noa Rodman]

dp

[Noa Rodman]

I mentioned already Paul Einzig's book on 1914-1935 (divided into the themes of inflation, stabilisation, deflation and reflation), he also wrote World finance, 1935-1937; World finance, 1937-1938 (http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006594256) (full view); World finance 1938-1939; World finance, 1939-1940.

Some books online are; Montagu Norman (http://books.google.com/books?id=WWgdq-WFa5AC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false) (A Study in Financial Statemanship; this was also republished by Routledge, and so are even others from him), The Comedy of the Pound (http://books.google.com/books?id=akoVAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false), and The future of gold (http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009797418).

But Einzig also covered finance of the post-war system, e.g. Destiny of Gold (1972).

There is a lack of reflection by Marxists on this question of gold's role in the monetary system (Alan Freeman did a podcast (http://dietsoap.podomatic.com/player/web/2012-03-13T12_35_40-07_00)on the topic, but only in passing said that the dollar rests on the gold reserves), with some exceptions:


Since 1894 the effects of gold production predominated and made themselves earlier and more powerfully felt than the other factors which caused increased prices with the exception of tariff’s which only operated in a transitory fashion. Under these conditions there arose that view which we call revisionism, that theory, that the capitalistic method of production develops tendencies, to continually improve the condition of the proletariat, to limit the exploitation of it, and so to put an end to all the tendencies of misery, without a political revolution. Just as in the sixteenth century the force of Protestantism in Germany, and after 1848 of Chartism in England was weakened through the increase in the production of gold, so the revolutionary spirit of the entire working class was weakened throughout the capitalist system. But only briefly on this occasion. http://www.marxists.org/archive/kautsky/1913/inflation/ch04.htm

Gold production corresponds with the long waves, 1890-1913 upturn, 1914-1931ish lack of gold - downturn, 1931 upturn again (of a very long wave until 1960s thanks to SA Apartheid (http://critiqueofcrisistheory.wordpress.com/the-five-industrial-cycles-since-1945/from-the-1974-75-recession-to-the-volcker-shock/)), then downturn until 1981, then upturn until 2007 I think (based on Anwar Shaikh (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9hqta_anwar-shaikh-on-marx-and-the-global_news#.UQhcIWdkxDM)).