The major global crises of the mid-1970s and 2008-9 provoked debates among the ruling class about the best economic policies to manage capitalism. For socialists and activists the question was different, and debates about whether and to what extent capitalism… Continue Reading
In my last article for International Socialism 18 months ago I argued that the Great Recession of 2008-9 that devastated the world capitalist economy had not been followed by a recovery in investment and output in the “normal” way, as… Continue Reading
A review of Costas Lapavitsas, Profiting Without Producing: How Finance Exploits Us All (Verso, 2013), £20 In the substantial body of Marxist literature emerging in the wake of the economic crisis that began in 2007-8, two broad positions have been… Continue Reading
It is now six years since the first rumblings of the earthquake that was the global financial crash and the Great Recession. On 9 August 2007 BNP Paribas announced that it was closing down two of its funds of US… Continue Reading
It has become a rarely challenged commonsense assumption that, as part of the globalisation process, there is an inexorable haemorrhaging of jobs from the “Global North” to the “Global South”. China and other countries in Asia are cited as prime… Continue Reading
The global capitalist crisis has now reached its half-decade point, and the months leading up to this unhappy anniversary saw the publication of a number of interesting papers on Marxist political economy. Here I will briefly survey some of them,… Continue Reading
For Marx, the proximate cause of crises is the fall in the average rate of profit (ARP).1 An increasing number of studies has shown that this thesis not only is logically consistent but is also supported by a robust and… Continue Reading
A review of Gillian Tett, Fool’s Gold: How Unrestrained Greed Corrupted A Dream, Shattered Global Markets and Unleashed a Catastrophe (Abacus, 2009), £8.99; Paul Krugman, The Return of Depression Economics (Penguin, 2008), £9.99; and Joseph Stiglitz, Freefall: Free Markets and… Continue Reading
A review of David McNally, Global Slump: The Economics and Politics of Crisis and Resistance (Spectre, 2011), £12.95; and Leo Panich, Greg Albo and Vivek Chibber (eds), Socialist Register 2011: The Crisis This Time (Merlin, 2011), £25 David McNally’s Global… Continue Reading
The 2007 financial crisis has reignited the discussion on crises, their origin and possible remedies.1 At present the most influential thesis on the left sees the crisis as caused by underconsumption and recommends Keynesian policies as a solution. This paper… Continue Reading