Dr. Rasmus continues his analysis of three great economists (Keynes, Marx, Smith) in today’s first of 3 part series on ‘Marx’s Economics’. What are the origins of Marx’s economic thought? How it critiqued classical economics before him, while borrowing and adapting concepts from the classicals. What were the original contributions of Marx’s economics, conceptually and otherwise. Why Marx is about long run, supply side evolution of capitalist economy and the possibility of eventual breakdown of the system (and not about explaining recessions or depressions). Marx’s great innovations in quantifying the labor theory of value and explaining how and why capitalism evolves fundamentally by means of exploitation of labor. (Next week: contemporary examples why exploitation of labor is intensifying in both absolute and relative terms in the USA over at least the last 40 years. What Marx could not see in the evolution of capitalism in the 21st century).