Paul M. Sweezy | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | April 10, 1910 New York City,New York, U.S. |
| Died | February 27, 2004(2004-02-27) (aged 93) |
| Academic background | |
| Education | Harvard University (BA,PhD) London School of Economics |
| Doctoral advisor | Joseph Schumpeter[2] |
| Influences | Karl Marx,Vladimir Lenin,Rosa Luxemburg,Michał Kalecki,Ladislaus Bortkiewicz,Joseph Schumpeter |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Macroeconomics |
| School or tradition | Neo-Marxian economics[1] |
Paul Marlor Sweezy (April 10, 1910 – February 27, 2004) was an AmericanMarxist economist, political activist, publisher, and foundingeditor of the long-running magazineMonthly Review. He is best remembered for his contributions to economic theory as one of the leading Marxian economists of the second half of the 20th century.
Paul Sweezy was born on April 10, 1910, inNew York City, the youngest of three sons of Everett B. Sweezy, a vice-president of First National Bank of New York.[3] His mother, Caroline Wilson Sweezy, was a graduate ofGoucher College inBaltimore.[3]
Sweezy attendedPhillips Exeter Academy and went on toHarvard and was editor ofThe Harvard Crimson, graduatingmagna cum laude in 1932.[3] Having completed his undergraduate coursework, his interests shifted from journalism to economics. Sweezy spent the 1931–32 academic year taking courses at theLondon School of Economics, traveling toVienna to study on breaks.[3] It was at this time that Sweezy was first exposed to Marxian economic ideas.[3] He made the acquaintance ofHarold Laski,Joan Robinson and other young left-wing British thinkers of the day.[3]
Upon his return to the United States, Sweezy again enrolled at Harvard, from which he received hisPhD degree in 1937 for a thesis on the "Limitation of the Vend", an English mineowners'cartel, entitledThe Limitation of the Vend: A Study in Monopoly and Competition.[4][5] During his studies, Sweezy became like a son to the Austrian-born economistJoseph Schumpeter, although on an intellectual level, their views were diametrically opposed. Later, as colleagues, their debates on the "Laws of Capitalism" were of legendary status for a generation of Harvard economists.[6]
While at Harvard, Sweezy founded theacademic journalThe Review of Economic Studies and published essays onimperfect competition, the role ofexpectations in the determination of supply and demand, and the problem ofeconomic stagnation.[3]
Sweezy became an instructor at Harvard in 1938.[3] It was there that he helped establish a local branch of theAmerican Federation of Teachers, the Harvard Teachers' Union.[3] In this interval also Sweezy wrote lectures that later became one of his most important works of economics,The Theory of Capitalist Development (1942),[7] a book which summarized thelabor theory of value of Marx and his followers. The book was the first in English to deal thoroughly with such questions as thetransformation problem.[citation needed]
Sweezy worked for severalNew Deal agencies analyzing the concentration of economic power and the dynamics of monopoly and competition. This research included the influential study for the National Resources Committee, "Interest Groups in the American Economy" which identified the eight most powerful financial-industrial alliances in US business.[8]
From 1942 to 1945, Sweezy worked for the research and analysis division of theOffice of Strategic Services. Sweezy was sent to London, where his work for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) required his monitoring British economic policy for the US government.[3] He went on to edit the OSS's monthly publicationEuropean Political Report. Sweezy received the bronze star for his role in the war. He was the recipient of the Social Science Research Council Demobilization Award at war's end.[3]On December 14, 2016, the U.S. Congress "awarded the Congressional Gold Medal collectively to the members of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in recognition of their superior and major contributions during World War II".[citation needed]
Sweezy wrote extensively for the liberal press during the post-war period, including such publications asThe Nation andThe New Republic.[3] He also wrote a book,Socialism, published in 1949, as well as a number of shorter pieces which were collected in book form asThe Present as History in 1953. In 1947 Sweezy quit his teaching position at Harvard, with two years remaining on his contract, to dedicate himself to full-time writing and editing.[3]
In 1949, Sweezy andLeo Huberman founded a new magazine calledMonthly Review, using money fromhistorian andliterary criticF. O. Matthiessen. The first issue appeared in May of that year, and included Albert Einstein's article "Why Socialism?". The magazine, established in the midst of the AmericanRed Scare, describes itself as socialist "independent of any political organization".[9]
Monthly Review rapidly expanded into the production of books andpamphlets through its publishing arm,Monthly Review Press.
Over the years,Monthly Review published articles by a diverse array of voices, including material byAlbert Einstein,W. E. B. Du Bois,Jean-Paul Sartre,Che Guevara andJoan Robinson.[10]
In 1954,New Hampshire Attorney GeneralLouis C. Wyman subpoenaed Sweezy and made inquiries into the contents of a guest lecture at the University of New Hampshire and his political beliefs and associations, demanding to know the names of his political associates. Sweezy refused to comply, citing hisFirst Amendment right offreedom of expression. He was cited forcontempt of court and briefly imprisoned, but theUS Supreme Court overturned the conviction in a landmark case foracademic freedom, inSweezy v. New Hampshire,354 U.S. 234 (1957).[11][12]
Sweezy was active in a wide range of progressive causes, including theEmergency Civil Liberties Committee, theNational Lawyers Guild, theNational Council of Arts, Sciences and Professions, and theFair Play for Cuba Committee.[13] He was the chairman of the Committee in Defense ofCarl Marzani and was particularly active fighting against the prosecution of members of the Communist Party under theSmith Act.[13]
An outspoken opponent of theVietnam War, Sweezy was a prominent supporter ofBertrand Russell's International War Crimes Tribunal.[13]
Sweezy's work in economics focused on applying Marxist analysis to what he identified as three dominant trends in modern capitalism: monopolization, stagnation, and financialization.
Sweezy's first formally published paper on economics was an article in theJournal of Political Economy in 1934 entitled "Professor Pigou's Theory of Unemployment".[3] Over the rest of the decade Sweezy wrote prolifically on economics-related topics, publishing some 25 articles and reviews.[3] Sweezy did pioneering work in the fields of expectations andoligopoly in these years, introducing for the first time the concept of thekinked demand curve in the determination of oligopoly pricing.[3]
Harvard published Sweezy's dissertation,Monopoly and Competition in the English Coal Trade, 1550–1850, in 1938. With the 1942 publication ofThe Theory of Capitalist Development,[7] Sweezy established himself as the "dean of American Marxists" and laid foundations for later Marxist work on these themes. In addition to presenting the first major discussion in English of the "transformation problem", the book also emphasized the "qualitative" as well as "quantitative" aspect of Marx's theory of value, distinguishing Marx's approach from those of his predecessors in political economy.[8]
In 1966, Sweezy publishedMonopoly Capital: An Essay on the American Economic and Social Order withPaul Baran. The book elaborated evidence for and implications of Sweezy's stagnation theory, also called the theory ofsecular stagnation. The main dilemma that moderncapitalism would face, they argued, would be how to find profitable investment outlets for theeconomic surpluses created bycapital accumulation. Because of the increase in oligopoly, this would take the form of stagnation as monopolistic firms reduced output rather than prices in response to overcapacity.
Oligopoly meant that there was a tendency for the rate of surplus to rise, but this surplus did not necessarily register in statistical records as profits. It also takes the form of waste and excess production capacity.
Increases inmarketing,defense spending and various forms ofdebt could alleviate the problem ofoveraccumulation. However, they believed that these remedies to capital's difficulties were inherently limited and tend to decrease in effectiveness over time so thatmonopoly capital would tend toward economic stagnation.
This book is regarded as the cornerstone of Sweezy's contribution toMarxian economics.
Sweezy had dealt with the rise and fall of finance capital in the early 21st century, identifying monopoly as the more essential trend. This formed the context in which he would analyze the resurgence of finance capital in the post-war era. Because Sweezy's approach combined and integrated the micro effects of monopoly with the macro level insights of Keynesian theory, it proved superior for understanding thestagflation of the 1970s. Sweezy's later work withHarry Magdoff examined the importance of "financial explosion" as a response to stagnation.[8]
Paul Sweezy died on February 27, 2004, at the age of 93.
He was survived by his second wife, Nancy, his third wife, Zyrel, and his three children, Samuel, Lybess and Martha.[1]
Sweezy was lauded by economist andpublic intellectualJohn Kenneth Galbraith as "the most noted American Marxist scholar" of the late 20th Century.[14] He was also called "the best that Exeter and Harvard can produce" and regarded as "among the most promising economists of his generation" byNobel Prize-winning economistPaul Samuelson.[15]
Sweezy and Baran'sMonopoly Capital once again came into fashion as a guideline for the 2008 financial troubles as surplus productivity was malinvested into the financial sector andfinancialization of western companies over productive benefits of industry. Post 2008,consolidating corporate powers with aid from United States government policies continue to roll surpluses of productivity into militaristic ventures across the world in order to monopolize more industries such as media, banking, real estate, pharmaceutical, and technology to control pricing across commodities and services and labor.[citation needed]
Sweezy maintained that under monopoly capitalism, the restricting of new investments and declining real wage growth would put pressure on effective demand.[16]
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
