Problems of the Labour Theory of Value, Money, and the State Form.

Dunn, Bill

The article articulates four theses towards a properly value theoretic account of of contemporary capitalism. First, money precedes capitalism by millennia, implying that there is a process of becoming a measure of value in capitalism. Second, even conceived within a strictly capitalist commodity economy, money is already an inherently imperfect measure of value as socially necessary labour time. Third, commodity money as world money only operated through national and international coordination. Fourth, the end of the Bretton Woods system removed any objective measure making price and price dislocations incomprehensible without incorporating an understanding of the role of states and their monetary practices. States are a vital, endogenous, part of modern capitalism, whose capacities are limited by capital and should be theorized in value theoretic terms, but with a specific, non-determined moment of their own, with profound consequences. This implies that recent financialization shouldn't be seen as an escape from a lost world of successful Keynesian management but as one in which state actions actively reproduce finance and financial instability.

MARX, Karl, 1818-1883; VALUE (Economics); PRICES; CAPITALISM; CIVIL society; FINANCIALIZATION

International Critical Thought, 2024, Vol 14, Issue 4, p573

2159-8282

Academic Journal

10.1080/21598282.2024.2431954