Did Marx Have Second Thoughts about the Law of the Falling Rate of Profit? An Archival Rejection of Heinrich's Arguments.

This article critically examines Michael Heinrich's archival arguments claiming that Karl Marx had doubts about the validity of the law of the falling rate of profit (LFRP) during the 1870s and shifted his focus toward credit and circulation in explaining capitalist crises. Using extensive evidence from Marx's and Engels' published and unpublished writings, including the Marx Engels Collected Works (MECW) and the Marx Engels Gesamtausgabe (MEGA), the paper refutes Heinrich's six main claims, showing that Marx maintained his confidence in the LFRP and did not fundamentally alter his analysis from production to circulation. The study highlights that Marx's later writings on credit and the U.S. economy were empirical supplements rather than theoretical revisions, and that his mathematical manuscripts of the 1870s addressed technical issues unrelated to the LFRP's validity. The article concludes that Heinrich's interpretation undermines the coherence of Marx's Capital and that defending the integrity of Marx's labor theory of value and LFRP remains crucial for understanding capitalism's contradictions and for the political struggle against capitalist exploitation.