Karl Marx in America:Readings for the Current Global Economic Crisis

Joseph W.H. Lough, Ph.D.Filozofski fakultet Tuzla

Blog: http://www.newconsensus.org/MarxInAmerica/Twitter: @jwhlough

email: joseph.lough@gmail.comphone: +387 603375497

Review•The Dutch and British Cycles of Capital

Accumulation

- the same pattern appears in each cycle;

- but we also find novelties in each cycle

✦ the Dutch combine Genoese with Venetian features;

✦ the British recycle the territorial state

Review•The Dutch and British Cycles of

Capital Accumulation

- Why the state dislikes capital up to a point

- How management annoys investors

- Why capital dislikes the state up to a point

Review•The Dutch and British Cycles of

Capital Accumulation

- How well would capitalism fair in a public sphere composed after Aristotle’s model?

- Why does capitalism crave democracy and parliamentary rule (after a fashion)?

Review•The Dutch and British Cycles of

Capital Accumulation

- How historical slavery differs from slavery under capitalism

- The British sow the seeds of their own downfall

Preview•Why too much prosperity can be a

bad sign

•Why politicians are less fond of “sound money”

•How cheap money laid the foundation for the Great Depression

•How WWI and WWII punctuated the end of the Second Global Hegemony

Preview•How WWII established the

supremacy of the US economy

•How the Marshall Plan and Cold War was used to circumvent Washington

•How military Keynesianism backfired

•How the Great Depression of 1873-96 favored the US vertically integrated model

Preview•Why the German model was less

robust than the US

•How 1945 through 1968 became the “Age of Capital”

•The signal year of the crisis: 1968

•The US belle époque

•The irony of “sound money”

Preview•Vietnam, the Oil Embargo,

Reaganomics and the end of the fourth cycle of capital accumulation

The Fourth (US) cycle of Capital Accumulation•How can too much prosperity be a

bad sign?

•Why are politicians often less fond of “sound money”?

•What about the neoliberals?

•What drove economic growth in the 1920s?

The Fourth (US) cycle of Capital Accumulation•How did cheap money lay the

foundation for the Great Depression?

•How did WWI and WWII punctuate the end of the Second Global Hegemony?

The Fourth (US) cycle of Capital Accumulation•How did WWII establish the

supremacy of the US economy?

•What was Breton Woods?

•How did sound money fair at Breton Woods?

•How did corporate America use the Marshall Plan and Cold War to circumvent Washington?

The Fourth (US) cycle of Capital Accumulation•How did military Keynesianism

backfire?

•How the Great Depression of 1873-96 favor US vertically integrated model of the US over the small producer-market and trade model of the UK and the horizontally integrated model of DE?

The Fourth (US) cycle of Capital Accumulation•How can WWs I and II be viewed as

wars of succession?

•Why is 1968 the signal year of the crisis?

•When did the US belle époque begin?

•What is the irony of “sound money”?

The Fourth (US) cycle of Capital Accumulation•What is the logic behind the Oil Embargo?

•How did the Vietnam War both help and hurt the US in the long run?

•How did Reaganomics bring “morning” to America?

•Why might the USSR suffer from global economic chaos?

•Why was the end of the cold war a disaster for the fourth cycle of capital accumulation?

The Fourth (US) cycle of Capital Accumulation•How is increasing competition and

systemic chaos setting the stage for the next cycle of capital accumulation?

•What new regimes of capital accumulation lay on the horizon?

•Which of the US’s competitors might battle for succession with one another and with whom would the US side?

G Arrighi’s Model•How does G Arrighi “naturalize” land,

labor, and money?

•Is the state a good thing for G Arrighi?

•What happens when the state is unstable?

•Is capital a bad thing for G Arrighi?

•What form of domination characterizes capitalism?

G Arrighi’s Model•What might loosen the bonds of this

form of domination?

•What role does labor play in G Arrighi’s model?

•What role does abstract value play in G Arrighi’s model?

•What role does power play in G Arrighi’s model?

Preview•J Lowinger, “Economic Reform and the

‘Double Movement’ in Yugoslavia: An Analysis of Labor Unrest and Ethno-Nationalism in the 1980s”

- How neoliberalism contributed to economic chaos

- How Titoism contributed to political, economic, and social disorder

- How economic disorder favored nationalism