宇都宮 勉のページ
Tsutomu Utsunomiya's Page
”Speculative Capital” Grows in Sustenance of Corona Crisis
The covid-19 pneumonia, which was confirmed in Wuhan, China on December 8, 2019, was extremely infected with the virus, and each country was forced to restrict going out and lock down (city blockage). As a result, consumers could not go to stores and demand "evaporated", causing a sharp slowdown and stagnation in the movement of commercial capital, as well as a sharp slowdown and stagnation in the industrial capital that makes commodities.
In the United States as well, when the first infected person was found on January 21, 2020, the movement for commercial and industrial capital slowed down sharply. On February 24, the stock price, which is "speculative capital," began to plummet. But the Dow Jones Industrial Average just a month later he turned to a record high of $ 2112 on March 24, and stock prices continued to skyrocket until early June. Despite the corona wreck, stock prices have continued to rise at almost one level since then (as of mid-July 2009).
However, the stock market crash and soaring have brought great benefits to the ultra-rich. In the 11 weeks from March 18, 2020 to May 27, 2020, the total wealth of millionaires increased by about 56.5 trillion yen, and in the 13 months until April 12, 2009, it increased by about 250 trillion yen. It is. On the other hand, suspension of industrial capital and commercial capital
By the end of May 2008, the number of workers who applied for unemployment insurance had reached about 42 million, and the number of unemployed people had reached about 10 million as of the end of January 2009.
As mentioned above, due to the corona crisis, the speculative capital continues to expand rapidly due to the "difference" between the sluggish industrial capital and commercial capital, and while capitalists are accumulating unprecedented money, workers and ordinary people are low. There is a phenomenon that the "gap" that suffers from wages and unemployment is widening. So, in this report, (1) what is speculative capital, when it was “born”, (2) why US stocks experienced the highest ever surge just one month after the crash, and (3) why US stocks hit new highs. I would like to report on whether it continues and (4) why the gap between rich and poor has widened rapidly. This report mainly deals with the United States, the most developed capitalist country in the world.
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DECIPHERING THE LEHMAN CRISIS：FOCUSING ON SPECULATIVE CAPITAL
Marx analyzed three major capital categories in the “Capital ”: industrial capital, commercial capital, and loan capital. However, the “speculative capital,” which is the fourth capital, has grown to a huge scale and has had a great influence on the modern economy. Modern speculative capital makes full use of speculative value multiplication machines (computers and data communication systems) and technologies (derivatives, financial engineering) that did not exist in the Marx era. Speculative capital was “born” in the 1970s and proliferated “instantly” and “largely” on a global scale. The subprime loan-related products that contributed to the crisis were speculative products, and it was the major financial institutions that created the biggest cause of the depression by selling them to investors around the world. The Lehman crisis that occurred in the form of a chain failure of a major financial institution was a new crisis caused by modern speculative capital.
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"SPECULATIVE CAPITAL" AND THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FINANCIAL BUBBLE ---- THE TRUMP BUBBLE WILL COLLAPSE
Since the 1980s, financial bubbles began to occur frequently at intervals of approximately 3-8 years. The reason that “changed” that started with the suspension of gold dollar exchange in 1971 caused the “birth” of “speculative capital” that proliferates due to fluctuations in product prices. It is thought that sudden expansion started. Speculative capital grows at the stage of crossing the “national border” of the target country, at the stage of buying stocks, at the stage of stock prices falling, and at the stage of repeated financial bubbles. When the subprime bubble collapses
On the other hand, speculative capitalists seized more than 1200 trillion yen from workers and small capitalists. Speculative capital grows with positive fluctuations in stock prices, but at the time of peak, buyers disappear, and there is a “contradiction” in which positive fluctuations suddenly turn into large negative fluctuations = crashes. We will look at speculative capital and the extinction of the financial bubble.
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"Speculative capital" brings low inflation
Today, we are in an era of "low inflation" in addition to low economic growth, low unemployment and low interest rates. This low inflation began in the United States in the early 1980s. In the early 1980s, the prices of US stocks and government bonds began to soar. In addition, since the exchange of gold-dollar exchanges in 1971, the foreign exchange rate has shifted to a floating exchange rate system, and a “floating economy” in which exchange rates and interest rates fluctuate has begun. In the mid-70s and early 1980s, computers for information processing machines began to be personalized. We believe that the fluctuating economy and the personalization of computers that began have “born” new capital, “speculative capital”. The birth of speculative capital begins to expand rapidly with new types of personal computers released in 1981. We believe that this rapid expansion of speculative capital created low inflation and bubbles such as stock prices and government bond prices.
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“SPECULATIVE CAPITAL”WIDENS POVERTY AND INEQUALITY
Capitalism is a system in which capitalists exploit the value (=money) created by workers . This is because the capitalist distributes the money gained by selling the products made by the workers to the overwhelming advantage. At that time, the product of the worker is purchased by the “consumer” and the growth of capital is completed. Marx called this consumer product purchase "a leap of product life". “Speculative capital” that was “born” in the 1970s due to the rapid development of capitalism proliferated due to price fluctuations in “speculative products” such as stocks, government bonds, and financial derivatives, and purchased speculative products with higher prices. Many are capitalists. On the other hand, the movement to drastically reduce the wages of industrial workers to reduce costs and increase dividends, retained earnings and share buybacks began in the early 70s. Wage cuts and capitalist profit expansion have deepened the poverty of workers and have rapidly expanded the gap between work qualifications.
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SPECULATIVE CAPITAL AND FINANCIALIZATION OF THE ECONOMY
What capital is moving in the modern stock market? It is not “industrial capital” because it does not produce products in the market. There is no distribution of merchandise or “commercial capital”. It is neither lending nor borrowing money nor “lending capital”. What is exercising in the stock market, etc. is the capital that earns profits from buying and selling goods, and this capital is called “speculative capital”. "Forex trading is ..." speculation "that develops in search of a small amount of interest. The author thinks that this speculative capital that was “born” in the 1970s caused the “financialization” of the economy.
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”SPECULATIVE CAPITAL”CREATES A FAR-RIGHT REGIME
Despite the stagnation of the global economy, far-right parties are growing in Europe and elsewhere. The acceleration of these far-right parties was accelerated after the 2008 Lehman Depression. The Lehman Depression is the expansion and rupture of the "speculative capital" described below. This expansion and rupture of speculative capital also occurred during the Great Depression in the United States in 1929. The Great Depression spilled over into Germany over the course of several months, leaving large numbers of workers unemployed. Under these circumstances, the Nazis far right had emerged as allies of all ranks. Is there a connection between the bursting of speculative capital and the advance of the far right? We will verify it below.
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HOW DID SPECULATIVE CAPITAL CHANGE THE MODERN ECONOMY 4.4 (PPT)
Speculative capital gives hints to think about the following items. (1) Why did financialization of the economy happen, (2) What is the essence of neoliberalism, (3) why industrial capital of developed countries fell into low growth, (4) why loan capital to enterprises is sluggish, (5) why poverty and inequality arise, (6) why low inflation has occurred, (7) what is the essence of financial derivatives, (8) why the Lehman crisis has occurred, and so on.
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