Excess of productive capital released, financialization, and the measurement of profit rates in the U.S. economy

Abstract

Maldonado Filho (1982) shows the importance of release and tying-up of productive capital in the transformation of values into production prices. The release of capital increases the volume of money capital. However, there is an important feedback effect in this process. Capital in monetary form can be reproduced as interest-bearing capital, creating an impetus for financialization, which by its turn modifies the rate of profit and the capitalist dynamic itself. This article proposes the use of a rate of return on equity and its components, estimating it for the US case for the period 1960-2015.