Article
И.И. Рубин и проект создания советской политэкономии
The article discusses the interpretation of the Marxian legacy proposed by I.I. Rubin. This interpretation provided an answer to the challenges faced by Marxism at the turn of the twentieth century. From the 1970s it becomes widely known abroad. Despite the tragic fate of the scholar, his works had made a significant impact on economic studies in the Soviet Union. However, their perception was greatly complicated due to the effect of social and political factors related to the functioning of the Soviet political economy.
The article deals with the economic consequences of the Industrial Revolution. Detailed analysis of gold standard and its evolution is provided. Aggravation of social contradictions in the first half of the XIX century led to the creation of utopian projects of reconstruction of the world. The paper analyzes the political economy of labor, its formation, development and historical destiny.
The article analyzes the monograph of A.B. Rakhmanov Social Philosophy of Max Weber, in which criticism of Weber's sociology is used as an excuse for the revivification of Marxist social utopia. Since the author's argument depends entirely on its ideological beliefs, it has zero value in scientific terms, but may serve as a useful starting point for diagnosing the current state of Russian sociology, especially in the context of its social utility.
The paper examines the structure, governance, and balance sheets of state-controlled banks in Russia, which accounted for over 55 percent of the total assets in the country's banking system in early 2012. The author offers a credible estimate of the size of the country's state banking sector by including banks that are indirectly owned by public organizations. Contrary to some predictions based on the theoretical literature on economic transition, he explains the relatively high profitability and efficiency of Russian state-controlled banks by pointing to their competitive position in such functions as acquisition and disposal of assets on behalf of the government. Also suggested in the paper is a different way of looking at market concentration in Russia (by consolidating the market shares of core state-controlled banks), which produces a picture of a more concentrated market than officially reported. Lastly, one of the author's interesting conclusions is that China provides a better benchmark than the formerly centrally planned economies of Central and Eastern Europe by which to assess the viability of state ownership of banks in Russia and to evaluate the country's banking sector.
The paper examines the principles for the supervision of financial conglomerates proposed by BCBS in the consultative document published in December 2011. Moreover, the article proposes a number of suggestions worked out by the authors within the HSE research team.