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"Zirkel vicieux" or Trend Fall? The Course of the Profit Rate in Marx's Capital III

Karl Marx’s theory of “the tendency of the rate of profit to fall” is one of the most controversial parts of his scientific oeuvre. The theory was published in 1894 as part 3 of Volume III of Das Kapital. There are two conflicting interpretations of this theory. The first says that the profit rate will vary (cyclically) around a falling trend; the second, that the profit rate will vary cyclically but not necessarily around a falling trend. Both interpretations may be combined with methodological qualifications as set out in the present article. The two interpretations are relevant since at issue is Marx’s general outlook on the dynamics of the capitalist system. It makes quite a difference whether the capitalist system is regarded as self-dissolving—which is the implication of the trend fall in the rate of profit—or as, in principle, a reproductive system, which the cyclical view implies.1