The present paper examines Karl Marx’s famous conception of “historical materialism,” in his A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (Marx, 1970, p. 19-23), and focusses on the criticism that it has deterministic, both economically and technologically, and therefore it omits the role of human agency and free will. This paper aims at evaluating this criticism in closer detail, and showing that it is not founded. By considering two types of determinism, and the issue of human intentional behavior and its relation to history, it is shown that the allegation that historical materialism ignores the importance of conscious human conduct or praxis is untenable.

Keynes focused on the concept of the capital and its development by emphasizing the unemployment. Keynesian theory has turned into an economic revolution by questioning the individualism, the private property and its limits with the analysis of concepts and processes such as the nature of human, the uncertainty, the functioning of capital market and its unstable nature which creates the impoverishment of large masses. Keynes showed how the market economy which can performs in very narrow margins transformed into a casino and the swamp of the speculation with a new series of concepts. In this article, it is analyzed how macroeconomic variables such as profit, saving, investment in a capitalist economy should be examined with reference to Keynes. Furthermore, the incompatibility of prices with values and the dynamics of crisis have been discussed in the context of Keynesian theory.In this paper, Keynes’s proposal of solution to these problems has been examined and these solutions evaluated carefully.

For the countries that apply inflation targeting monetary policy to maintain price stability the exchange rate pass-through effect on the inflation rate arises as a serious issue. Countries with a high import dependency in manufacturing and with high foreign debt stocks cannot leave exchange rates to market dynamics; therefore, their central banks use policy interest rates to control their exchange rates with fear of floating. In this study, a dynamic model based on the dynamic versions of the Mundell – Fleming and Dornbusch models is developed to analyze the dynamic behavior of output, price, and exchange rate in an inflation-targeting small open economy. The steady-state and simulation results suggest that central banks with a fear of floating cannot determine their inflation target independently of the foreign interest rates. There is a unique value of the fear of floating parameter that can keep the economy stable.

The purpose of this study is to explore both the size and direction of the relationship between the most known and widely used cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC) and European Currency Euro (EUR), British Pound (GDP), and Gold (XAU) prices. To examine short-run and long-run relationships between Bitcoin and major exchange rates and gold prices, which all expressed in the US Dollars, we use daily data between July 2010 and December 2020, and apply the most commonly used ADF, PP, KPSS unit root tests, Johansen Co- integration test, and Granger Causality Analysis. Our time-series analysis shows no strong long-term relationship between Bitcoin and prime exchange rates, therefore, concludes that Bitcoin’s value is determined in its own market conditions. On the other hand, we find a unidirectional (one-way) causality from British Pound to Bitcoin.

The present paper examines Karl Marx’s famous conception of “historical materialism,” in his A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (Marx, 1970, p. 19-23), and focusses on the criticism that it has deterministic, both economically and technologically, and therefore it omits the role of human agency and free will. This paper aims at evaluating this criticism in closer detail, and showing that it is not founded. By considering two types of determinism, and the issue of human intentional behavior and its relation to history, it is shown that the allegation that historical materialism ignores the importance of conscious human conduct or praxis is untenable.

For the countries that apply inflation targeting monetary policy to maintain price stability the exchange rate pass-through effect on the inflation rate arises as a serious issue. Countries with a high import dependency in manufacturing and with high foreign debt stocks cannot leave exchange rates to market dynamics; therefore, their central banks use policy interest rates to control their exchange rates with fear of floating. In this study, a dynamic model based on the dynamic versions of the Mundell – Fleming and Dornbusch models is developed to analyze the dynamic behavior of output, price, and exchange rate in an inflation-targeting small open economy. The steady-state and simulation results suggest that central banks with a fear of floating cannot determine their inflation target independently of the foreign interest rates. There is a unique value of the fear of floating parameter that can keep the economy stable.

The purpose of this study is to explore both the size and direction of the relationship between the most known and widely used cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC) and European Currency Euro (EUR), British Pound (GDP), and Gold (XAU) prices. To examine short-run and long-run relationships between Bitcoin and major exchange rates and gold prices, which all expressed in the US Dollars, we use daily data between July 2010 and December 2020, and apply the most commonly used ADF, PP, KPSS unit root tests, Johansen Co- integration test, and Granger Causality Analysis. Our time-series analysis shows no strong long-term relationship between Bitcoin and prime exchange rates, therefore, concludes that Bitcoin’s value is determined in its own market conditions. On the other hand, we find a unidirectional (one-way) causality from British Pound to Bitcoin.

Keynes focused on the concept of the capital and its development by emphasizing the unemployment. Keynesian theory has turned into an economic revolution by questioning the individualism, the private property and its limits with the analysis of concepts and processes such as the nature of human, the uncertainty, the functioning of capital market and its unstable nature which creates the impoverishment of large masses. Keynes showed how the market economy which can performs in very narrow margins transformed into a casino and the swamp of the speculation with a new series of concepts. In this article, it is analyzed how macroeconomic variables such as profit, saving, investment in a capitalist economy should be examined with reference to Keynes. Furthermore, the incompatibility of prices with values and the dynamics of crisis have been discussed in the context of Keynesian theory.In this paper, Keynes’s proposal of solution to these problems has been examined and these solutions evaluated carefully.