The Myths of Crisis: A New Turning Point in History?

摘要

The article argues that the crisis is continuing and will continue as long as surplus capital remains. The reason lies in the refusal of investors to invest their capital productively. They are afraid of the political consequences of expanding or substantially expanding the economy. They have run out of alternative modes of controlling capitalism. Historically the strategies used were imperialism, war, hot and cold, Stalinism, the welfare state/social democracy and finance capital. The problem is that these strategies are either defunct or a shadow of what they were. Most particularly, the last strategy, finance capital, embarked on for the second time in the late 1970s has now imploded. As a consequence of lacking an alternative, investors have turned to a utopian solution—that of classical or pristine capitalism. This goes considerably further than so-called neo-liberalism. It cannot work, except in distorted way, either technically or politically. It can only give rise to increasing class battles. In the long run the bourgeoisie can only lose as they are proposing a solution that is technically impossible and socially repugnant, but it may take some time to happen.View full textDownload full textKeywordsMarxism, Crisis, Finance Capital, Bourgeois Strategy, Government DebtRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03017605.2011.583093