Description
Book SynopsisMost mainstream economists view capitalism's periodic breakdowns are nothing more than temporary aberrations from another wise unbroken path toward prosperity. For Marxists, this fundamental flaw has long been acknowledged as a central feature of the free market system. This groundbreaking volume brings together Marxist scholars from around the world to offer an empirically grounded defence of Marx's law of profitability and its central role in explaining these capitalist crises.
Trade Review“World in Crisis presents detailed evidence from across the world, and over the long historical span, to show that the tendency does really exist, and has a clear and ultimately dominant influence in determining the general state of economies, nationally and globally.” –Counterfire
Table of ContentsPreface
Introduction
Part 1. The US economy
Chapter 1. G. Carchedi and M. Roberts – The long roots of the present crisis: Keynesians, Austerians, and Marx’s law
Chapter 2. G. Carchedi – The law of crises
Chapter 3. J.A. Tapia – Investment, profit, and crises: theories and evidence
Part 2. The international dimension
Chapter 4. E.E. Maito – The tendency of the rate of profit to fall since the 19th century and a world rate of profit
Chapter 5. T. Sato – Japan’s ‘lost’ two decades: a Marxist analysis of prolonged capitalist stagnation
Chapter 6. M. Roberts – The UK rate of profit and British economic history
Chapter 7.. J.P. Mateo – The Long Depression in the Spanish economy: bubble, profits, and debt
Chapter 8. T. Maniatis and K. Passas – Surplus value, profit, and unproductive labor in the Greek economy, 1958–2013
Chapter 9. A. Marquetti, E.M. Filho, and V. Lautert – The profit rate in Brazil, 1953–2008
Chapter 10. M. Gaulard – The Chinese economic crisis: a Marxist approach
Part 3. Credit, fictitious capital, and crises
Chapter 11. M. Roberts – Debt matters
Chapter 12. S. Cámara I. and A. Mariña F– The neoliberal financialization of the US economy
Chapter 13. M.E.G. Smith and J. Butovsky – The roots of the global crisis: Marx’s law of falling profitability and the US economy, 1950–2013
Chapter 14. T. Norfield – Derivatives and capitalist markets: the speculative heart of capital
Chapter 15. S. Nash – High-frequency trading: the unfolding history of speculative capital
Part 4. The crisis and the euro
Chapter 16. G. Carchedi – From the crisis in surplus value to the crisis in the euro
Chapter 17. M. Roberts – The euro crisis is a crisis of capitalism
