Value and Crisis

Value and Crisis brings together selected essays written by Alfredo Saad-Filho, one of the most prominent Marxist political economists writing today. Divided into two parts, "Essays on the Theory of Value" and "Essays on Contemporary Capitalism," this book examines the labour theory of value from a rich and innovative perspective from which fresh insights are derived. In this volume, Saad-Filho cogently discusses the nature of neoliberalism, financialisation, inflation, monetary policy, the contradictions, limitations and crises of contemporary capitalism, and more.

Publication date: April 7, 2020

Acknowledgements 
Introduction 
1 Method 
2 The Theory of Value 
3 Systems of Accumulation 
4 Neoliberalism 
5 Outline of the Book 
Part 1: Essays on the Theory of Value
1 Marxist Economics 
1 The Method and Approach of Marxist Political Economy 
2 The Labour Theory of Value 
3 Commodities, Labour and Value 
4 Capital and Capitalism 
5 From Value to Surplus Value 
6 Profit and (Increasing) Exploitation 
7 Marxist Political Economy, Laws of Development and Contemporary Capitalism 
8 Conclusion 
2 The Relevance of Marx’s Theory of Value 
1 Interpretations of Marx’s Theory of Value 
1.1  Traditional Marxism 
1.2  Sraffian Analyses 
1.3  Value Form Theories 
1.4  The ‘New Interpretation’ 
2 Value Theory and Class Analysis 
2.1  Principles 
2.2  Implications 
3 Conclusion 
3 Labour, Money and ‘Labour-Money’: A Review of Marx’s Critique of John Gray’s Monetary Analysis 
1 Labour, Money, Exploitation 
2 Marx on Labour and Money 
3 Money, Value, and Price 
4 The Other Functions of Money 
5 Labour-Money in Retrospect 
6 Conclusion 
4 Capital Accumulation and the Composition of Capital 
1 Capital and Exploitation 
2 Understanding the Composition of Capital 
3 Production and the Composition of Capital 
4 Capital Accumulation 
5 Conclusion
5 The ‘Transformation Problem’ 
1 The ‘Problem’ 
2 Alternative Interpretations 
2.1  Neoclassical and Sraffian 
2.2  Value-Form Theories 
2.3  Dynamic Analysis 
3 Marx’s Transformation: A Review 
4 The Transformation and its Method 
5 Conclusion 
6 Transforming the Transformation Problem: Why the ‘New Interpretation’ is a Wrong Turning 
1 The ‘New Interpretation’: A Simple Formal Presentation 
2 Value of Money 
3 Value of Labour Power 
4 Structure, Sequence and Dynamics 
5 Conclusion
7 The Supply of Credit Money and Capital Accumulation: A Critical View of Post-Keynesian Analysis 
1 The Fundamental Process of Endogenous Money Creation 
2 Commodity and Credit Money Systems 
3 Money and Inflation 
4 Two Steps Forward – One Step Back 
4.1  The Origin and Role of Money in the Economy 
4.2  Horizontal Money Supply 
4.3  Inflation 
5 Conclusion: What is Important for the Way Ahead? 
8 Inflation Theory: A Critical Literature Review and a New Research Agenda 
1 Conflict and Inflation 
1.1  Conflict Theories 
1.2  Assessment 
2 Monopolies, Underconsumption, and Inflation 
2.1  Inflation Theory 
2.2  Assessment 
3 Credit, Extra Money, and Inflation 
3.1  Money and Credit 
3.2  Extra Money Inflation 
3.3  Inconvertibility and Inflation 
3.4  Assessment 
4 Conclusion 

Part 2: Essays on Contemporary Capitalism
9 Anti-capitalism: A Marxist Introduction 
1 Capitalism and Anti-Capitalism 
2 September 11 and Beyond 
3 Four Pressing Issues 
3.1  Neoliberalism 
3.2  Globalisation 
3.3  Corporate Power 
3.4  Democracy 
4 The Way Ahead 
5 Leaving Capitalism Behind 
10 Neoliberalism 
1 Neoliberal Ideas 
2 Policy Shifts and Institutional Changes 
3 Classes and Class Struggle 
4 Neoliberalism, Financialisation and Globalisation 
5 Contradictions and Limitations 
11 Thirteen Things You Need to Know About Neoliberalism 
1 A New Stage 
2 An Ideology? 
3 A Reaction? 
4 Markets and States 
5 Financialisation 
6 Policy Changes 
7 The Balance of Power 
8 Scholarship, Policy and Practice 
9 Two Phases 
10 Variegated Neoliberalism 
11 Everyday life 
12 Growth, Volatility and Crises 
13 Alternatives 
12 Democracy Against Neoliberalism 
1 Capitalism and Democracy 
2 Democracy in the Age of Neoliberalism 
3 The Limitations of Neoliberal Democracy 
4 Economic and Political Imbalances 
5 Globalism and (Nation-)States 
6 New Authoritarianism 
7 Transcending Neoliberalism through Radical Democracy 
8 Conclusion 
13 Monetary Policy and Neoliberalism 
1 Monetary Policy for Mature Neoliberalism 
2 Inflation Targeting and Central Bank Independence 
3 The New Monetary Policy Consensus in Practice 
4 The Performance of Inflation-Targeting Regime and Central Bank Independence 
5 Costs of the New Monetary Policy Consensus 
5.1  The Cost of High Interest Rates 
5.2  The Cost of Conflicts between Inflation Targeting and Balance of Payments Equilibrium 
5.3  The Cost of Financial Instability 
5.4  The Cost of Central Bank ‘Independence’ 
6 The Impact of the Global Crisis 
7 Conclusion 
14 Neoliberal Development and Its Critics 
1 Neoliberalism and Its Critics 
2 Neoliberalism and Development 
3 Neoliberalism, Politics and Development 
4 Conclusion
15 CrisisinNeoliberalism or CrisisofNeoliberalism?
1 Neoliberalism and Financialisation 
2 Financialisation and Social Discipline 
3 Neoliberalism’s Contradictions 
4 Not Moving Forward 
5 Coming Out of Left Field 

References 
Index