US Economic Performance from 1929 to 2008 in Terms of the Marxian Theory of Crises, with Some Notes on the Recent Financial Crisis

The core of the Marxian theory on economic crises is detected in Marx's theory of the falling profit rate, owing to the rising organic composition of capital or the decrease of the rate of surplus-value, due to rising real wages. On the basis of this theoretical admission a research on US economic performance from 1929 to 2008 has been undertaken. The findings of this study indicate that US capitalism seems to suffer from a weakness to achieve high profit rates. The recent financial crisis is thus a possible result of a ‘plethora’ of profit seeking capitals in the financial sector.