Global Capitalist Crisis and the Second Great Depression


Book Description

This book provides a comprehensive political, economic, and historical analysis of the events and circumstances from the 1920s to 2010 that impacted the rise of today's "Global Capitalist Crises," Global Economic Crises, and the U.S.'s "Second Great Depression." It argues that liberal capitalism is a "failed" political and economic system in dire need of "systemic change" into either social democracy or democratic socialism via the creation of a New Movement.




The Long Depression


Book Description

Setting out from an unapologetic Marxist perspective, The Long Depression argues that the global economy remains in the throes of a depression. Making the case that the profitability of capital is too low, and the debt built up before the Great Recession too high, leading radical economist Michael Roberts persuasively presents his case that this depression will persist until the profitability of capital is restored through yet another slump.




The Global Capitalist Crisis and Its Aftermath


Book Description

Written by a team of experts on the contemporary global capitalist political economy who are able to shed light on the inner workings of global capitalism and the capitalist globalization process that has led to the growth and development of capitalism from the national to the global level, this groundbreaking volume provides critical analyses of the causes and consequences of the Great Recession of 2008-2009. Through a careful examination of the origin, development and aftermath of the catastrophic economic crisis from which the world is still trying to recover, editor Berch Berberoglu and his colleagues demonstrate that those most responsible for the economic collapse are the ones least affected by its devastating impact felt most severely by working people around the world. Ultimately, this book argues that it is only through the systematic restructuring of the world economy by the working class that society will be able to prevent the boom and bust cycle of global capitalist crises and usher in a more egalitarian socialist economy and society.




Capitalism's Crisis Deepens


Book Description

“The leading socialist economist in the country” explores the roots of the Great Recession and its immense impact on working people (Cornel West). While most mainstream commentators view the crisis that provoked the Great Recession as having passed, these essays from Richard Wolff paint a far less rosy picture. Drawing attention to the extreme downturn in most of capitalism’s old centers, the unequal growth in its new centers, and the resurgence of a global speculative bubble, Wolff—in his uniquely accessible style—makes the case that the crisis should be grasped not as a passing moment, but as an evolving stage in capitalism’s history. Praise for Richard Wolff and Democracy at Work “Probably America’s most prominent Marxist economist.” —The New York Times Magazine “Richard Wolff’s constructive and innovative ideas suggest new and promising foundations for much more authentic democracy and sustainable and equitable development, ideas that can be implemented directly and carried forward. A very valuable contribution in troubled times.” —Noam Chomsky “Wolff offers a rich and much-needed corrective to the views of mainstream economists and pundits. It would be difficult to come away from this with anything but an acute appreciation of what is needed to get us out of this mess.” —Stanley Aronowitz “Bold, thoughtful, transformative—a powerful and challenging vision that takes us beyond both corporate capitalism and state socialism. Richard Wolff at his best!” —Gar Alperovitz




Global Slump


Book Description

Global Slump analyzes the global financial meltdown as the first systemic crisis of the neoliberal stage of capitalism. It argues that—far from having ended—the crisis has ushered in a whole period of worldwide economic and political turbulence. In developing an account of the crisis as rooted in fundamental features of capitalism, Global Slump challenges the view that its source lies in financial deregulation. The book locates the recent meltdown in the intense economic restructuring that marked the recessions of the mid-1970s and early 1980s. Through this lens, it highlights the emergence of new patterns of world inequality and new centers of accumulation, particularly in East Asia, and the profound economic instabilities these produced. Global Slump offers an original account of the “financialization” of the world economy during this period, and explores the intricate connections between international financial markets and new forms of debt and dispossession, particularly in the Global South. Analyzing the massive intervention of the world’s central banks to stave off another Great Depression, Global Slump shows that, while averting a complete meltdown, this intervention also laid the basis for recurring crises for poor and working class people: job loss, increased poverty and inequality, and deep cuts to social programs. The book takes a global view of these processes, exposing the damage inflicted on countries in the Global South, as well as the intensification of racism and attacks on migrant workers. At the same time, Global Slump also traces new patterns of social and political resistance—from housing activism and education struggles, to mass strikes and protests in Martinique, Guadeloupe, France and Puerto Rico—as indicators of the potential for building anti-capitalist opposition to the damage that neoliberal capitalism is inflicting on the lives of millions.




Hall of Mirrors


Book Description

"A brilliantly conceived dual-track account of the two greatest economic crises of the last century and their consequences"--




Epic Recession


Book Description

Epic Recession explains the origins and future direction of the current economic crisis, and the relationships between the banking system's breakdown and the economy in general. Jack Rasmus describes how Epic Recession is highly resistant to traditional fiscal and monetary policy solutions and requires major structural changes in the economy in order to check and contain. The book analyzes in depth the origins and causes of Epic Recession—revealing its roots in corporate and government policies and fundamental structural changes in U.S. capitalist economy since the early 1980s. Epic Recession explains how the current economic crisis is similar to, and simultaneously different from, both the Great Depression of 1929-1934 and post-1945 recessions in the U.S. It categorizes Epic Recessions in two dominant forms: ‘Type I’ and ‘Type II’: The former similar to events of 1907-1914; the latter to events of 1929-1931. Rasmus argues today’s current crisis is evolving into a ‘Type I’, but has the potential for transforming into a ‘Type II’ and that 2011-2013 will be a critical period for determining which type will prevail. Epic Recession further provides a detailed critique of both George W. Bush and Obama administration recovery programs, in both their monetary and fiscal dimensions, and assesses why they have fared poorly thus far in resolving the crisis. The book concludes by presenting a full, thorough alternative program necessary for recovery.




The Crisis of Capitalist Democracy


Book Description

Following up on his timely and well-received book, A Failure of Capitalism, Richard Posner steps back to take a longer view of the continuing crisis of democratic capitalism as the American and world economies crawl gradually back from the depths to which they had fallen in the autumn of 2008 and the winter of 2009. By means of a lucid narrative of the crisis and a series of analytical chapters pinpointing critical issues of economic collapse and gradual recovery, Posner helps non-technical readers understand business-cycle and financial economics, and financial and governmental institutions, practices, and transactions, while maintaining a neutrality impossible for persons professionally committed to one theory or another. He calls for fresh thinking about the business cycle that would build on the original ideas of Keynes. Central to these ideas is that of uncertainty as opposed to risk. Risk can be quantified and measured. Uncertainty cannot, and in this lies the inherent instability of a capitalist economy. As we emerge from the financial earthquake, a deficit aftershock rumbles. It is in reference to that potential aftershock, as well as to the government's stumbling efforts at financial regulatory reform, that Posner raises the question of the adequacy of our democratic institutions to the economic challenges heightened by the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. The crisis and the government's energetic response to it have enormously increased the national debt at the same time that structural defects in the American political system may make it impossible to pay down the debt by any means other than inflation or devaluation.




A Failure of Capitalism


Book Description

The financial and economic crisis that began in 2008 is the most alarming of our lifetime because of the warp-speed at which it is occurring. How could it have happened, especially after all that we’ve learned from the Great Depression? Why wasn’t it anticipated so that remedial steps could be taken to avoid or mitigate it? What can be done to reverse a slide into a full-blown depression? Why have the responses to date of the government and the economics profession been so lackluster? Richard Posner presents a concise and non-technical examination of this mother of all financial disasters and of the, as yet, stumbling efforts to cope with it. No previous acquaintance on the part of the reader with macroeconomics or the theory of finance is presupposed. This is a book for intelligent generalists that will interest specialists as well. Among the facts and causes Posner identifies are: excess savings flowing in from Asia and the reckless lowering of interest rates by the Federal Reserve Board; the relation between executive compensation, short-term profit goals, and risky lending; the housing bubble fueled by low interest rates, aggressive mortgage marketing, and loose regulations; the low savings rate of American people; and the highly leveraged balance sheets of large financial institutions. Posner analyzes the two basic remedial approaches to the crisis, which correspond to the two theories of the cause of the Great Depression: the monetarist—that the Federal Reserve Board allowed the money supply to shrink, thus failing to prevent a disastrous deflation—and the Keynesian—that the depression was the product of a credit binge in the 1920s, a stock-market crash, and the ensuing downward spiral in economic activity. Posner concludes that the pendulum swung too far and that our financial markets need to be more heavily regulated.




Deepening Crisis


Book Description

Response to financial meltdown is entangled with basic challenges to global governance. Environment, global security and ethnicity and nationalism are all global issues today. Focusing on the political and social dimensions of the crisis, contributors examine changes in relationships between the world’s richer and poorer countries, efforts to strengthen global institutions, and difficulties facing states trying to create stability for their citizens.