Ibarra-Escobar, G. I. (2023). Abstract Capitalism, Marx versus Smith and Ricardo. Tirant Humanidades. México. 288 pages.

Abstract

We are faced with a book that addresses a problem that has been debated among economists and Marxists since the 19th century, but which is highly relevant in the 21st century. It concerns the debate surrounding the validity of Marx's law of value, which allowed him to explain how the entire modern capitalist system functions. Hence its title, Abstract Capitalism, which aims to summarize what the author calls the DNA of the modern economy. Although the stated purpose is to explain the coherence of the law of value in Volumes 1 and 3 of Capital, it is a sophisticated argument that arrives at two basic conclusions: the first is that the value-form of the commodity, which remains the basic unit of wealth produced under modern conditions, is still valid, and that Marx's explanation through fetishism and the transfigured forms of value serves as a basis for understanding the phenomenology of contemporary reality. The second is that Marx's prophecies about the inevitable disappearance of capitalism as the historical form of the economic formation of society have not come to pass.