Comment on Larry Summers on ‘Corporate profits are near record highs. That’s a problem’
Blog-Reference
You write: “The rate of profit under standard assumptions reflects the marginal productivity of capital.”
Only for economists who have not yet realized that marginalism is dead for more than 150 years. The Profit Law for the 2-sector economy reads Qm≡Yd+I−Sm (2014, p. 8, eq. (18)). Legend: Qm monetary profit, Yd distributed profit, I investment expenditures, Sm monetary saving.
When the profit theory is false, then the rest of the economic theory is false. The reason why the profit development appears “anomalous” to you is that you simply do not know what profit is.#1
Egmont Kakarot-Handtke
References
Kakarot-Handtke, E. (2014). The Three Fatal Mistakes of Yesterday Economics: Profit, I=S, Employment. SSRN Working Paper Series, 2489792: 1–13. URL
#1 How the intelligent non-economist can refute every economist hands down
For details of the big picture see cross-references Profit
Immediately following How the American working class can bring overall profits down to zero without bloody revolution.