Klaus Peter Kisker

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Klaus Peter Kisker (born November 16, 1932 in Bielefeld ) is a professor emeritus for economics at the Free University of Berlin . His work focuses on the critical reconstruction of Marx's theory, the explanation of international competitiveness of countries and regions, and questions of ecological economy.

Kisker's works are in the tradition of Marxian and Keynesian theory . He understands capitalist economies as monetary economies that develop in an unbalanced and crisis-ridden manner. With his interpretation of the stagnation tendencies of the developed metropolitan economies as a phase of structural over-accumulation, he made an important contribution to the Marxist theory of capitalist development, especially for the analysis of economic cycles and the long-term development of capitalist societies .

Klaus-Peter Kisker

Life

Klaus Peter Kisker was born on November 16, 1932 in Bielefeld . In 1954 he obtained his university entrance qualification (Abitur), completed a commercial apprenticeship by 1956, but began studying economics at the Technical University of Hanover as early as 1955. From 1956 to 1960 he studied economics, philosophy and sociology at the Free University of Berlin . In 1963 he received his doctorate at the Free University of Berlin on the subject of "Inheritance tax as a means of asset redistribution" (Berlin 1963). From 1963 to 1965 he was a lecturer at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at Freie Universität, as well as assistant representative at the faculty, in the Senate of Freie Universität and regional assistant representative. From 1965 to 1967 he worked as a research associate at Harvard University , Cambridge, USA. He completed his habilitation in 1971 at the Free University of Berlin, where he was appointed professor in the Department of Economics that same year.

Kisker has been Liaison Lecturer at the Hans Böckler Foundation since 1984, and Liaison Lecturer at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation since 2005 . He is co-editor of the magazine " Sozialismus ".

Theory of structural overaccumulation

Kisker interprets the structural break in capitalist societies since the mid-1970s as a phase of structural over-accumulation . Structural over-accumulation crises are not to be confused with cyclical over-accumulation crises, as they are not based on false signals from the market and are not eliminated by short-term downturns. They result from a longer-term, ie over-cyclical, fall in the rate of profit (cf. law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall ), which from a certain point can no longer be compensated for by increasing profit masses. The reason is that the rates of accumulation themselves depend on the falling rate of profit. Structural over-accumulation, in turn, requires capital to act strategically.

"This is how to explain

  • that the real investment rate has decreased significantly,
  • that entrepreneurs try to limit their investments to replacement and rationalization investments ,
  • that they build up huge amounts of money at the expense of real investments and buy up other companies rather than using the profits to expand existing companies, whereby they are usually not interested in the production capacities, but only in the market shares of the companies bought up. Their employees and machines are an annoying bonus. "
- Kisker 2007: 336

Through these measures, the individual capitals can stabilize their profit, but in the long term they exacerbate the structural over-accumulation, since the strategies slow down the fall in the rate of profit in the short term, but at the same time bring about a further reduction in the rate of accumulation on average over the cycle. The restriction of real capital accumulation means that, given an increase in the share of rationalization investments, the long-term growth of labor productivity is greater than that of the national product. The trend towards increasing layoffs is the consequence, which in turn has a negative effect on domestic demand .

Feudo socialism and democratic socialism

Even after the decline of real socialism, Klaus Peter Kisker sticks to the perspective of socialist change in society. For him, the failure of the non-capitalist societies of the Eastern Bloc is irrevocable, but it is not synonymous with the failure of socialist conceptions in general. This is not only because the social and ecological costs of the developed capitalist economies continue to call for an alternative, but also because the non-capitalist societies of the Eastern Bloc , which have reached their limits, can only be understood as "feudo-socialist" ones derived from the Asian-feudal Russia's mode of production and have preserved its anti-democratic and repressive elements.

"If it is true that a new society is still afflicted economically, morally, and spiritually in every respect, with the birthmarks of the old society from whose bosom it comes" (Karl Marx), then in 1917 it was not just not closed in Russia avoid, but then, due to the initial conditions, it was particularly important that when the new society was built, essential parts of the old feudal order were inevitably taken over "

- Kisker 1991: 59

Kisker is striving for a model in which the information flows and decisions in a structured system of economic and social councils run from bottom to top and global goals of production and consumption are democratically determined. Markets do not stand in opposition to such a model of socialism, but instead should continue to be used for the purpose of fine-tuning economic processes, in order to ensure optimal allocation and to relieve the councils.

Works

Books

  • Inheritance tax as a means of asset redistribution, Berlin 1963.
  • Public active credit and public credit insurance as a means of economic and financial policy, Berlin 1970.
  • Brauns, HJ / Jaeggi, U./Kisker, KP / Zerdick, A./Zimmermann, B .: The SPD in crisis, Frankfurt a. M. 1976.
  • Kisker, KP / Knoche, M./Zerdick, A .: Economic situation and press concentration in the FRG, Munich / New York / London / Paris 1979.
  • Multinational corporations. Their influence on the situation of employees, Cologne 1982, Russian edition Moscow 1985.
  • Bischoff, J./Deppe, F./Kisker, KP (eds.) The end of neoliberalism? How the Republic was changed, Hamburg 1998.
  • Hickel, R. / Kisker, KP / Mattfeldt, H. / Troost, A. (Ed.): Politics of Capital Today, Hamburg 2000.
  • Kisker, KP / Heine, M. (Ed.): Wirtschaftswunder Berlin, Berlin 1987.
  • Heine, Michael / Klaus Peter Kisker / Andreas Schikora: Black Book EC Internal Market. The forgotten costs of integration, Berlin 1992.
  • Meißner, H.-R./Kisker, KP / Bochum, U./Aßmann, J .: The parts and the rule. The reorganization of automobile production and supplier relationships, Berlin 1994.

items

  • A Note on the Negative Income Tax; in: National Tax Journal No. 1; 1967.
  • Asset concentration and asset policy in late capitalism; in: Union Monthly Bullets , No. 2, 1972.
  • Behavior of German companies in developing countries; in: Leminski, G./Otto, B. (ed.): Unions and Development Policy; Cologne, 1975.
  • Jaeckel, E./Kisker, KP / Müller, HE / Oertzen, D .: On the effects of the n multinationalization of the West German economy on employees using the example of the Siemens group; in: WSI-Mitteilungen, special issue: Union State or Entrepreneur State? 12/1976.
  • Multinational corporations of the Federal Republic of Germany and underdeveloped countries; in: Senghaas, D./Menzel, U. (Ed.): Multinational corporations and the Third World; Opladen, 1978.
  • Long waves as bearers of hope, in: Prokla, spw, Sozialismus, Memorandum, IMSF (ed.), Controversies on the theory of crises, Hamburg 1986.
  • Ecological crisis versus economic crisis; in: Krasemann / Hochschule der Künste Berlin (ed.), Life without the military - perspective or utopia ?, Berlin 1989.
  • Perspectives for the 90s; in: Busch, R. (Ed.): Berlin 2000, Berlin 1989.
  • Economic lessons from the failure of "feudosocialism"; in: Das Argument 180, Issue 2, 1990.
  • Crisis of socialism ?; in: Initial No. 1, 1991.
  • Michael Heine / Klaus Peter Kisker / Andreas Schikora, Black Book EC Internal Market, The Forgotten Costs of Integration, Berlin 1992.

Articles available online

Festschriften

  • Schikora, A./Fiedler, A./Hein, E. (Hg.): Political Economy in Change. Festschrift for Klaus Peter Kisker, Marburg 1992.
  • Gerlach, O./Kalmring, S./Nowak, A. (ed.): With Marx into the 21st century, on the topicality of the criticism of political economy. Festschrift for Klaus Peter Kisker, Hamburg 2003.

Interviews

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kisker, Klaus Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German economist, professor emeritus for economics
DATE OF BIRTH November 16, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Bielefeld