Changes in profit rates of six decades1<sup>9</sup>
Evolution of capital intensity and capital stock<sup>2</sup>0
(Average annual growth rate)
Two other factors can have some impact on the level of investment capitalists have to undertake to remain competitive. There is the increase in the speed at which capital produces and sells commodities (what Marx called the "turnover time" of capital) as a result of advances in transport technology and of the computerisation of warehousing and stock keeping (what are often called today "logistics"). An estimate is that "capital services" grew 2 to 3 percent faster than the capital stock in the late 1980s and 1990s for most countries.21 This would have reduced the costs to capitals of holding stocks of raw materials on the one hand and of goods awaiting sale (their "circulating capital"). But the second factor will have worked from the opposite direction-the reduced lifetime fixed capital had before it became outdated (what is known as "moral" depreciation). Computers and software become obsolescent because of technical advances much more quickly than other capital equipment-in perhaps two or three years rather than ten, 20 or even 30-and the increased depreciation costs cut into profits.2
The Years of Delusion
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