[Marxism] Oil price (Was W's expulsion)

[S. Artesian]

Marvin,

Sorry for the delay in answering--  6 hr time difference.  Anyway, no I 
would not attribute the price collapse to falling demand and liquidation of 
long positions, just as I would not attribute the price run-up to increasing 
demand [which did not increase at an insupportable rate], nor "excessive 
exuberance" in taking long positions.  Those things,  demand and forward 
positions, long or short, are DETERMINED, not determinants.  They are the 
derivative of the success, or lack thereof, capital encounters in achieving 
a sufficient rate of return.  The market does not create profits, the market 
apportions, distributes the realized profit.  The market is determined by 
the profitability of capitalist accumulation.

The problem with the "demand"  and "overshoot" formulation is that it never 
gets beyond the "invisible hand" theory of market exchanges-- it never gets 
beyond the "equilibrium" fantasy of capital, even, or particularly in its 
renditions of disequilibrium.

So.... so the nut of the issue, to be cracked is the function that price 
plays-- the function that the price of oil played in redistributing profit, 
in offsetting the tendency of the ROI to decline-- the issue really is the 
success or failure capital has encountered in its reproduction.

We aren't saying much about the history of capitalism, even its short term 
history from 1973 on if we attribute the trends in oil price increases and 
declines to market imbalances or greedy speculators.

Anyway, for those interested in my take-- I finished, about 2 weeks ago, two 
pieces on oil and capitalism at:   http://thewolfatthedoor.blogspot.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marvin Gandall" <marvgandall at videotron.ca>
To: <sartesian at earthlink.net>
Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2009 12:23 AM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Oil price (Was W's expulsion)