What is it about?
The Japanese economy has a glaring contradiction in which the profitability has been rising, not falling, under more than 30 year economic malaise. We can explain this contradiction consistently only when our argument is based on Marx’s law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall (LTRPF). Today’s capitalism is also characterized as not competitive, but monopoly one. The theory of monopoly capitalism is usually seemed to be incompatible with the LTRPF. However, this article reveals the LTRPF are fully functioning under monopoly capitalism.
Featured Image
Photo by Jaison Lin on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Most people usually think that Japanese economy is in the prolonged economic stagnation because of its low productivity and profitability. However, the reality is very opposite. The Japanese economy is stagnant because the rate of profit has been rising.
Perspectives
I address two misunderstandings. The first is an empirical one, that is, Japan is under stagnation because of its low profitability, the second is a theoretical one, that is, the Marx's LPRTF is inconsistent with the theory of Monopoly capitalism. I hope the article will help to clear up the two interconnected misunderstandings.
Takuya Sato
Chuo Daigaku
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Japan’s Secular Stagnation, Marx’s Law of the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall, and the Theory of Monopoly Capitalism, Historical Materialism, May 2022, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/1569206x-20221843.
You can read the full text:
Resources
Japan’s ‘lost’ two decades: a Marxist analysis of prolonged capitalist stagnation
This is the Chapter 5 in Guglielmo Carchedi and Michael Roberts ed. 2018, World in Crisis: A Global Analysis of Marx's Law of Profitability: A Global Analysis of Marx's Law of Profitability, Haymarket Books.
Marxist Economics: On Freeman's New Approach to calculating the Rate of Profit
This is one of the article the Journal's Special Issue, Heterodox Economics: Challenging Orthodoxy. This article focuses on Freeman's approach to estimating the rate of profit regarding with Marx's Law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall.
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
