MONOPOLY PRICING

After the global financial crisis of 2007-2008, we are facing the beginning of the end of the postwar capitalist world system. The 1920s was in the middle of the social, political and economic interregnum, a period of discontinuity in the social order, accompanied by widespread unrest, wars and power vacuums. In this article, that framework of the long and super long waves in the capitalist world systems is used to examine the recent interregnum that marks the re-emergence of Asia. Within the framework of the long and super long waves a new "flying geese" theory is built by incorporating the theory of dynamic industries with Akamatsu's theory. In the 1980s, Japanese integral production architecture improved quality and productivity in the automobile and electrical machinery industries. In the 1990s, the USA's open modular production architecture enabled China's compressed industrialisation, and the China-centric Asian production network replaced the Japan-led Pacific Rim triangular trade regime. In the 2000s, the knowledge-and technology-intensive (KTI) industries have established themselves as the new dynamic industries. The USA is the leading country to develop KTI industries. China is catching up quickly and has leapfrogged Japan in KTI industries. In conclusion, it is argued that these changes mark an approaching second interregnum. KEY WORDS Asia; Japanese economy; long and super long waves; capitalist world systems; dynamic industries; flying geese theory The global financial crisis of 2007-2008 marked the beginning of the end of the post-World War II capitalist world system. In an earlier article, I referred to the 1920s as being in the middle of the interregnum when the old hegemon-Britainlost the economic and military power required to organise the capitalist world system and the potential new hegemonthe USAdid not have the will to create a new capitalist world system (Yokokawa 2013). The interregnum was a period of discontinuity accompanied by widespread unrest, wars and power vacuums. It continued for three decades before the USA re-established a new capitalist world system following World War II. At the same time, an interregnum is the most critical period for it can result in the creation of a more stable and egalitarian world system. In arguing that a second interregnum is approaching, this article follows the framework of the long and super long waves of the capitalist world systems and examines the re-emergence of Asia and the rise and fall of the Japanese economy.

Global imperialism and the great crisis: the uncertain future of capitalism By Ernesto Screpanti (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2014, 256 pp). Global Imperialism represents a significant breakthrough toward understanding inter-imperialist rivalry today and the relationship between class forces, states, and the global economy. After a sweeping theoretical opening, however, Screpanti's own evidence suggests that he may have overreached with his bold claims that we are evolving toward a ''sovereignless'' Global Imperialism, free of inter-imperialist rivalry, where nation-states have little power. A more plausible sum-up of the evidence he reviews-one that he alludes to-is that we are entering a period of ''multilateral imperialism,'' where aspects of state power are undermined, but not eliminated, and where inter-imperialist rivalry plays out in new ways. Further assessment of additional evidence, using Screpanti's conceptual categories-such as global banker, global sheriff, global driver of growth, and others-may be indispensable for developing a coherent theory of contemporary imperialism. Screpanti theorizes a new phase of capitalism, ''Global Imperialism.'' In this phase, the interests of multinational corporations (MNCs) and nation-states have become structurally opposed. States can no longer act as the ''national collective capitalist'' (9-10). MNCs' collective interest in bringing down labor costs, combined with the weight of their investment decisions, gives them the power to enforce a neoliberal agenda on states everywhere. Governments' military services are now of ''secondary importance'' to capital, although MNCs still need great power states to play three roles: Global Sheriff, Global Banker, and Driver of Global

The quantity and quality of data available to an organisation plays an increasingly important role in its operation. This data can relate to a variety of subjects, from the internal logistics to consumer sentiment towards a product in a specific market. This data provides increasingly optimal behaviour derived from its analysis, e.g. improved decision making. As more advanced, application-specific, machine learning models are developed, the organisation with the largest share of data will gain an advantage over its competitors. It is postulated that smaller entities with minority shares in data within a domain possess only a fragmented view of a market. This fragmented view puts the smaller entity at a disadvantage and enables larger entities to reap unfair, competitive advantages. This unequal dynamic should be rectified. To that end, in this work, a model is proposed that enables the consensual sharing of data between multiple parties using blockchain.

We develop a model in which a profit-maximizing monopolist with uncertain cost of production sells to loss-averse, yet rational, consumers. We first introduce (portable) techniques for analyzing the demand of such consumers, and then investigate the monopolist's pricing strategy. Compared to lower possible purchase prices, paying a higher price in the firm's pricing distribution is assessed by consumers as a loss, decreasing demand for the firm's product. We provide conditions under which a firm with continuously distributed marginal cost responds by (locally) eliminating this "comparison effect" and choosing a discrete price distribution; that is, prices are "sticky". Price stickiness is more likely to obtain when the cost distribution has high density, the price responsiveness of demand is low, or consumers are likely to purchase. Whether or not prices are sticky, the monopolist wants to at least mitigate the comparison effect, leading to countercyclical markups. On the other hand, if consumers expect to buy the product, they experience a loss if they end up not consuming it, increasing their willingness to pay for it. Thus, despite the tendency toward price stability, there are also circumstances in which a firm with unchanging cost offers random "sales" to increase customers' expectation to consume, attracting more demand at higher prices.

“The problem of imperialism is not only a most essential one, but, we may say it is the most essential problem in that realm of economic science which examines the changing forms of capitalism in recent times. Everyone interested not only in economics but in any sphere of present-day social life must acquaint himself with the facts relating to this problem, as presented by the author in such detail on the basis of the latest available data. Needless to say that there can be no concrete historical analysis of war, if that analysis does not have for its basis a full understanding of the nature of imperialism, both from its economic and political aspects. Without this, it is impossible to approach an understanding of the economic and diplomatic situation of the last decades, and without such an understanding, it is ridiculous even to speak of forming a correct view on the war.”

The advocates of the Great Reset  use the phrase “stakeholder economy”  to deny the existence of exploiting and exploited classes and class struggle and to extinguish the differences of the billionaires and the toiling masses of workers and peasants. They grab the the issue of environmentalism  in order to put a greencolor on their plunder and destruction of the environment and deny the monopoly capital culpability for global warming. And they express their determination to own and control science and technology from the the Third to the Fourth Industrial Revolution for the purpose of taking private superprofits and maintaining wage slavery by the monopoly bourgeoisie.

In this paper we study the behavior of rivals when there is a known probability of imminent entry. Experimental markets are used to collect data on pre-and post-entry production when there is an announced time of possible entry; some markets experience entry and other do not. In all pre-entry markets competition is more intense. Post-entry behavior in all markets is more competitive compared to a baseline that had no threat. There is evidence that post-entry multimarket contact raises outputs in those markets that did not experience entry, behavior we generally refer to as a conduit effect.

The quantity and quality of data available to an organisation plays an increasingly important role in its operation. This data can relate to a variety of subjects, from the internal logistics to consumer sentiment towards a product in a specific market. This data provides increasingly optimal behaviour derived from its analysis, e.g. improved decision making. As more advanced, application-specific, machine learning models are developed, the organisation with the largest share of data will gain an advantage over its competitors. It is postulated that smaller entities with minority shares in data within a domain possess only a fragmented view of a market. This fragmented view puts the smaller entity at a disadvantage and enables larger entities to reap unfair, competitive advantages. This unequal dynamic should be rectified. To that end, in this work, a model is proposed that enables the consensual sharing of data between multiple parties using blockchain.

This paper analyzes the financialization and the multinationalization of Chinese enterprises using Monopoly Capital Theory (MCT). This is done in order to establish theoretical approximations between China's integration to global capitalism, the development of a domestic bourgeoisie within China and the creation of a Chinese Monopoly-Finance Capital, in line with MCT. The paper is divided in three segments. Session one introduces the theoretical evolution of MCT. The following session analyzes China's integration into global capitalism and the birth of a Chinese Monopoly-Finance Capital. Session three oversees the multinationalization of China's companies, comparing this process to core capitalist countries development and in line with MCT.

The goal of this article is to investigate presence of Gharar in the buying and selling mechanism of different kinds of market. This is a qualitative paper based on theory and secondary information. The paper finds that the Gharar exists highly in the imperfectly competitive market compared to that of perfectly competitive. The level of Gharar is higher in monopoly followed by oligopoly and monopolistic market. Finally, the paper recommends some steps to be taken to avoid Gharar in buying and selling mechanism of those markets.
Key words: Gharar, Market, Buying and Selling Mechanism
JEL Code: Q01, Q56, Q57

This article describes the recent changes in the area of sourcing and spend management and it is in line with current calls for more efficient ways to source raw materials and (semi-) finished products and to compare prices of different products versus the market prices. The comparison versus market prices via the traditional tendering process became unusable nowadays as a consequence of the high price volatility since the financial crisis of 2008. We propose new sourcing techniques and new benchmarking techniques already used in a meta-search database containing more than 7,5 billion data points that can be used to determine quickly the supply sources and the value performance of the purchase of a product. This search process includes prices and price comparisons for more than 15000 raw materials, semi-finished products and finished products and is among others based on institutional data.

The current world of is fundamentally different from the one we lived in for the past. The major difference is a steep increase in “bottleneck and partnership products” (Kraljic, 1983, Nellore and Söderquist, 2000; Araujo et. al., 1999) to be supplied as the number of suppliers, the number of available products and the quality of the remaining supply all become more critical and buyers are faced with less suppliers than before spread all over the world and outside their home country. Yet, when time is of the essence, looking for those alternatives, which have moreover become scarce, might just take too much time. Efficient benchmarking might be helpful in this respect. Because of the time pressure, tendering becomes too time consuming and slow. Companies need tools to evaluate and assess opportunities in the market. In the remainder of the paper, we focus on one of these tools, the YQ Matrix. The YQ Matrix (www.YQmatrix.com) is a freely available tool that gives consolidated results in a number of predefined graphs and figures. Typically, these graphs include country, product, user and time-specific information. The YQ Matrix offers quick sourcing and price performance monitoring and makes it possible to have alternative solutions to the ones proposed by Kraljic (1984). The proposed gap procurement performance value makes it possible to do “Creative Time Procurement” since gap analysis enables better procurement timings. Furthermore, standardized sourcing graphs make it possible to do “Creative Geographical Procurement” (Faes and Decocq 2010), two elements that have become a necessity in creative procurement tools.

The IT platform provides the frame and the structured approach for mass data collection and validation.
1. Country selection. The simplest way would be to see if and how much products are traded to or from a specific country. Data can be collected and analyzed from more than 250 countries and dependencies, based on real life data. If desired, countries could be excluded from the analysis. The rationale underlying the country selection as a starting point for the analysis is the following: Instead of analyzing the production potential that might be available somewhere, you initially analyze what peers are already buying/selling on the market. This sourcing tool works under the assumption that if business is already happening there today, price, quality and other elements must be in favor of such procurement business.
2. Detection of emerging markets.
3. Detection of highest volumes and corresponding prices.
4. Detection of lowest prices and corresponding volumes.
The four-step approach has a number of advantages compared to more traditional tools and market research activities. Firstly, the speed of the research is increased drastically. By means of a few clicks and five minutes work, results can be obtained. For an update once the graphs are set, it’s only a matter of seconds. Compared to traditional market research taking each time many weeks, this is a large saving on man-hours. Secondly, the data obtained is objective and precise. Data is retrieved among others from official country statistics and international organizations that provide statistics. Thirdly, the official country statistics and international organization data is updated monthly, the user data is updated daily. Finally, compared to a traditional market study, which is a snapshot of reality, the data shows a truly longitudinal effect.
Procurement performance monitoring
Knowing where to buy is important, but knowing how well you perform is perhaps even more essential. The recent economic crisis has prompted many companies to closely evaluate their spend. This is not a new phenomenon and analyzing the spending exists just as long as purchasing itself, but recently there is particular emphasis on two different fields: the first one is the search for savings opportunities that are present within the company (spend analysis). Recent studies show that companies can save on average 11% of their purchase spend if they use a modern spend analysis system (Aberdeen Group Research, 2008). Even without these systems, purchasing managers could save money by consolidating and analyzing their purchases and supplier base. The second field is benchmarking. Increasingly, purchasing managers are looking outside their own company for ways to save money. Typically, companies are comparing their purchasing performances to the performance of other companies. This process, however, is not as easy as it sounds and involves a lot of data collection and data manipulation in order to get a result that is interpretable and useful for companies. In order to use the data available in the YQ Matrix, we propose a two-step process.

Step 1. Price gap analysis expressing the “price” performance

The price gap analysis is all about measuring and understanding the price delta over time. This delta is the difference between the price that you paid or currently pay and the price that are calculated via benchmark data. These benchmark data could include an index, a combination of relevant prices for the same product, or a combination of prices of different products that compose another product.  Crucial in the information from the benchmark tools is that the gap evolutions are shown. With the latest worldwide internet evolution, prices are not secret anymore. You can find almost all of them on a wide variety of websites. It is the way to achieve them that is proprietary and this achievement progress over time can best be measured through the price gap analysis.
Step 2: Price gap evolution expressing the “value” performance
The price gap evolution is the difference between the average six months price gap and the subsequent price gaps multiplied by the actually purchased volumes showing the procurement performance value versus market. This step quantifies the procurement efforts into an absolute value expressed in the practitioner’s currency.
The price gap analysis and price gap evolution have multiple advantages compared to the traditional approaches. First, companies can measure the gap on a structural basis and not only occasionally. This allows companies to have a structural follow-up of their procurement performance. Second, traditional gap analysis does not always take the volume actually purchased into account. The build-in of the purchased volume is a must. Indeed, a major price gap on ten tons purchased will hardly offset an earlier bad price gap on thousand tons purchased.
From a data collection perspective, there is less bias and manipulation by the market (e.g., compared to market prices assembled via telephone or e-mail). Each graph created on the database and defined as visible to other users is subject to voting by other users (“Like”, “Dislike”, “No opinion”). Whereas this type of crowd voting has so far been used on social media like Facebook, Twitter, … to express an opinion on a topic, the approach here is new as it is used to validate the reliability of the data. This means the YQ Matrix is not only valuable for the industry, but also for the institutional and academic world striving for data confirmation from multiple sources to carry out their academic and institutional studies.
Finally, similar to the four step country selection proposed earlier, results are reached faster and time invested is lower. Especially when prices are volatile, a thorough understanding of the market is necessary. The monitoring tool presented provides a short and long term visibility from which price seasonality and best buying times can be more easily deducted. In this way, it adds to the creative time procurement since it might be better to buy more expensive than the market at the right time than to buy the cheapest at the wrong time.

This article is divided into three parts. The first outlines Lenin’s theory and the key ideas necessary to apply it in today’s conditions. The final section applies the Leninist theoretical framework to show that China is not a rising imperialist power, and that even its full development as a capitalist economy is blocked by imperialism. Before looking at China, however, it is necessary to dispense with misunderstandings that prevent Marxists from grasping Lenin’s theory and encourage us to dismiss Lenin as wrong, dated or marginal. There are many distorters of Lenin. Marxist academics, on the whole, are as guilty of this as any party.2 However, ideas held by politically active Marxists have the most important consequences. The International Socialist tendency (IST) is the strongest active Marxist tendency in the English-speaking world today (outside India). Thus the second section focuses on misunderstandings within that tradition and of various writers at one time associated with it.

We use laboratory experiments to evaluate how contestability fares in a situation where the entrant and the incumbent have their own home markets and opportunities to enter each other's markets. The disciplining effect in contestable markets depends crucially on hit-and-run entry. If both the entrant and the incumbent firm have their own home markets then the entrant might not like to hit-and-run.