Transcript Financial Capital, Class Monopoly Rent and the Secondary Circuit of Capital

Financial Capital, Class
Monopoly Rent and the
Secondary Circuit of Capital
A Critical Review of David Harvey’s Contribution
Jie Meng, Jian Gong
Renmin University of China; Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
Methodological transformation
Compare with Marx
• Land as condition of production/factor of production
• Land property as obstacle to capital accumulation
• The theory of land property and rent not considered as the core in the laws of motion of capital
accumulation.
• Land as financial asset
• Land property and rent to be internalized in the circuit of interest-bearing capital; the real
subsumption of land to capital
• To incorporate the understanding of urbanization and built environment into the theory laws of
motion of capital accumulation
1.From the first circuit to the secondary
circuit of capital accumulation
• Push: over-accumulation in the first circuit of capital accumulation.
• Pull: the making of class-monopoly rent
More on class-monopoly rent
• Harvey’s hesitation: class monopoly rent as absolute rent or
monopoly rent.
• The so-called class monopoly.
• Difference from traditional definition of class.
2. The transformation from the first to the
secondary circuit of capital accumulation is
supported by state and financial institutions
• Over-accumulation for private capital in the first circuit, but shortage
of investment in the secondary circuit.
• The form of financial institutions and policies of state in facilitating
the transformation, hence the rise of financial capital as the
precondition of such transformation.
3.Urbanization and new forms in the reproduction
of labor power as mechanism of the
transformation
Two dimension of urbanization: the making of built environment and
the reproduction of labor power.
Urbanization and the new modes of mass consumption, the production
of new wants and demands.
Two forms of exploitation: work-based exploitation and communitybased exploitation.
4. The transformation leads to crisis not only in
the secondary circuit of capital but general crisis
for capital accumulation
• The generalization of over-accumulation in all three circuits of
accumulation.
• The core contradiction of financial form of contemporary capitalism:
to realize valorization without production of value.
• Urbanization as the root of crisis in contemporary capitalism since
1929-1933.
Some remarks
1. Harvey and the Monopoly Capital School
• Similarity: surplus absorption
• Difference : urbanization as one of the main source of surplus
absorption.
2. Harvey and the SSA/Regulation School
• Similarity: Institutional analysis of capital accumulation
• Difference: different understanding of crisis