ABSTRACT
There is a very brief way − and indeed a provocative one − to summarize the basic message of this study. In his mature writings, Marx emphasizes something that is really missing from other heterodox approaches to capitalism: the conception of value as a social relationship. From the lengthy manuscript of Grundrisse to the first edition of Capital (which he edited himself) this conception of value is the starting point of every concrete attempt to analyze capitalism. It is a central theme, with important theoretical and political implications. It also means that what is really missing from the non-Marxian political economy is the understanding of capital as a social relationship. That’s why in Marx’s system the concepts of value, money, capital, ideology, finance, and class struggle are systemically interlinked to each other. By and large, this was exactly our research plan in this book.
