Paul Sweezy facts for kids

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Quick facts for kids Paul M. Sweezy

Born	April 10, 1910 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	February 27, 2004(2004-02-27) (aged 93) Larchmont, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American

Field	Macroeconomics
School or tradition	Neo-Marxian economics
Influences	Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg, Michał Kalecki, Ladislaus Bortkiewicz, Joseph Schumpeter

Paul Marlor Sweezy (born April 10, 1910 – died February 27, 2004) was an important Marxist economist. He was also a political activist and a publisher. Paul Sweezy helped start and edit the well-known magazine Monthly Review. People remember him most for his ideas in economics. He was one of the top thinkers in Marxian economics in the second half of the 20th century.

Biography
Works
See also

Biography

Early Life and Learning

Paul Sweezy was born in New York City on April 10, 1910. His father, Everett B. Sweezy, was a vice-president at a big bank. His mother, Caroline Wilson Sweezy, went to Goucher College.

Paul went to Phillips Exeter Academy for high school. Then he studied at Harvard. He was the editor of the student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson. He graduated in 1932 with very high honors (magna cum laude).

After college, he became interested in economics instead of journalism. In 1931–32, he took classes at the London School of Economics. He also traveled to Vienna to study. This is when he first learned about Marxian economic ideas. He met other young, left-leaning thinkers in Britain.

Paul Sweezy returned to Harvard and earned his PhD degree in 1937. During his studies, he became close with the famous economist Joseph Schumpeter. Even though their ideas about economics were very different, they respected each other. Their debates about how capitalism works became famous at Harvard.

While at Harvard, Sweezy helped start an academic journal called The Review of Economic Studies. He also wrote about topics like how companies compete (imperfect competition). He studied how people's expectations affect buying and selling. He also looked at why economies might stop growing (economic stagnation).

Teaching and War Service

Paul Sweezy started teaching at Harvard in 1938. There, he helped create a local branch of the American Federation of Teachers. This was a union for teachers. During this time, Sweezy wrote lectures that became his important book, The Theory of Capitalist Development (1942). This book explained the labor theory of value by Karl Marx and his followers. It was the first English book to deeply discuss ideas like the "transformation problem."

Sweezy also worked for several New Deal agencies. These were government programs during the Great Depression. He studied how economic power was held by a few big companies. He looked at how monopolies and competition worked. He even wrote a study that named the eight most powerful financial groups in US business.

From 1942 to 1945, Sweezy worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). This was a US intelligence agency during World War II. He was sent to London to watch British economic policy for the US government. He also edited the OSS's monthly report on European politics. Sweezy received a medal, the Bronze Star, for his work during the war. In 2016, the US Congress gave the OSS members the Congressional Gold Medal for their contributions in World War II.

After the war, Sweezy wrote a lot for liberal newspapers like The Nation. He also wrote a book called Socialism in 1949. In 1947, he left his teaching job at Harvard. He wanted to focus full-time on writing and editing.

Starting Monthly Review Magazine

In 1949, Paul Sweezy and Leo Huberman started a new magazine called Monthly Review. They used money from a historian named F. O. Matthiessen. The first issue came out in May 1949. It included an article by Albert Einstein called "Why Socialism?". The magazine was started during a time in America called the Second Red Scare. This was when people were very worried about communism. The magazine said it was socialist but "independent of any political organization."

Monthly Review soon began publishing books and pamphlets through its own company, Monthly Review Press. Over the years, the magazine featured articles by many famous people. These included W. E. B. Du Bois, Jean-Paul Sartre, Che Guevara, and Joan Robinson.

Fighting for Rights

In 1954, a lawyer in New Hampshire questioned Sweezy. He asked about a lecture Sweezy gave and his political beliefs. He also demanded the names of his political friends. Sweezy refused to answer. He said he had the right to freedom of expression under the First Amendment. He was put in jail for a short time. But the US Supreme Court later said his conviction was wrong. This case, Sweezy v. New Hampshire, was very important for academic freedom. Academic freedom means professors can teach and research without unfair limits.

Sweezy was involved in many groups that worked for social change. He fought against the government prosecuting members of the Communist Party. He was also strongly against the Vietnam War. He supported Bertrand Russell's group that looked into war crimes.

Key Ideas in Economics

Sweezy's economic work focused on using Marxist ideas to understand modern capitalism. He saw three main trends:

Monopolization: When a few big companies control a market.
Stagnation: When the economy stops growing.
Financialization: When the economy relies more on financial activities than making goods.

In 1934, Sweezy published his first economics paper. He wrote many articles and reviews in the 1930s. He was a pioneer in studying how expectations affect the economy. He also introduced the idea of the kinked demand curve. This idea helps explain how prices are set in markets where a few big companies compete (an oligopoly).

Harvard published Sweezy's main research paper in 1938. It was about monopolies and competition in the English coal trade long ago. With his 1942 book, The Theory of Capitalist Development, Sweezy became known as a leading American Marxist thinker. The book was the first to explain the "transformation problem" in English. It also showed how Marx's ideas about value were different from earlier economists.

In 1966, Sweezy wrote Monopoly Capital: An Essay on the American Economic and Social Order with Paul Baran. This book showed evidence for Sweezy's idea of economic stagnation. They argued that modern capitalism would struggle to find profitable ways to invest the extra money (economic surplus) it created. Because of big companies (oligopolies), these firms would reduce what they produced instead of lowering prices when they had too much capacity. This led to stagnation.

They believed that this extra money didn't always show up as profits. It could also appear as waste or unused production capacity. Things like more marketing, defense spending, and different types of debt could temporarily help with the problem of too much capital. However, Sweezy and Baran thought these solutions were limited. They believed that capitalism would tend towards economic stagnation over time. This book is seen as Sweezy's most important contribution to Marxian economics.

Sweezy also looked at how finance (money and banking) became more important in the economy. He saw monopoly as a more basic trend. His ideas helped understand the "stagflation" of the 1970s. This was when the economy had both slow growth and rising prices. Later, Sweezy and Harry Magdoff studied how a "financial explosion" (a big increase in financial activity) was a response to economic stagnation.

Ideas in the 2008 Financial Crisis

Sweezy and Baran's book Monopoly Capital became important again during the 2008 financial crisis. Their ideas helped explain how too much money was invested in the financial sector. This was instead of being used for productive industries. They argued that big companies, often with government help, continue to put extra money into military projects. This helps them control more industries like media, banking, and technology. This allows them to control prices for goods, services, and labor.

Sweezy believed that as capital becomes more concentrated in fewer hands, demand for goods and services goes down. New investments are limited to protect profits.

Later Life and Impact

Paul Sweezy passed away on February 27, 2004, at 93 years old. He was remembered by his family.

Famous economist John Kenneth Galbraith called Sweezy "the most noted American Marxist scholar" of his time. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Samuelson said Sweezy was "among the most promising economists of his generation."

Works

Monopoly and Competition in the English Coal Trade, 1550–1850. [1938] Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1972.
The Theory of Capitalist Development. London: D. Dobson, 1946.
Socialism. New York: McGraw-Hill Company, 1949.
The Present as History: Reviews on Capitalism and Socialism. (1953, 1962).
Modern Capitalism and Other Essays. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1972.
The Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism. London: New Left Books, 1976.
Post-Revolutionary Society: Essays. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1980.
Four lectures on Marxism. (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1981).
"The Limits of Imperialism." In Chilcote, Ronald H. (ed.) Imperialism: Theoretical Directions. New York: Humanity Books, 2000.

With Leo Huberman

F.O. Matthiessen, 1902–1950. New York: S.N., 1950.
Cuba: Anatomy of a Revolution. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1960.
Regis Debray and Latin American Revolution. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1968.
Socialism in Cuba. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1969.
The Communist Manifesto after 100 Years: New translation by Paul M. Sweezy of Karl Marx's "The Communist Manifesto" and Friedrich Engels' "Principles of Communism." New York: Modern Reader, 1964.
Vietnam: The Endless War: From Monthly Review, 1954–1970. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970.

With Harry Magdoff

The Dynamics of US Capitalism: Corporate Structure, Inflation, Credit, Gold, and the Dollar. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1972.
Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Chile. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1974.
The End of Prosperity. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1977.
The Deepening Crisis of US Capitalism. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1981.
Stagnation and the Financial Explosion. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1987.
The Irreversible Crisis: Five Essays. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1988.

With others

An Economic Program for American Democracy. With Richard V. Gilbert, George H. Hildebrand, Arthur W. Stuart, Maxine Yaple Sweezy, Lorie Tarshis, and John D. Wilson. New York: The Vanguard Press, 1938.
Monopoly Capital: An Essay on the American Economic and Social Order. With Paul A. Baran. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1966.
On the Transition to Socialism. With Charles Bettelheim. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1971.