I would argue that it does and that, furthermore, Doug should pay a little less attention to the financial pages and more to reportage on, for example, the devastation wrought by Hurricane Mitch. It is in fact the prolonged economic crisis of the past 20 years in Central American that explains the severity of the storm's consequences. Landless peasants had begun to chop down trees on the sides of mountains and hills to grow subsistence crops. As more and more acreage became deforested, there was nothing to block flooding. In fact, this crisis fits neatly into the model described by James O'Connor that arise out of the "second contradiction" of capital. He says, "Put simply, the second contradiction states that when individual capitals attempt to defend or restore profits by cutting or externalizing costs, the unintended effect is to reduce the 'productivity' of the conditions of production and hence to raise average costs."
O'Connor has cited the following examples: Pesticides in agriculture at first lower, then ultimately increase costs as pests become more chemical-resistant and as the chemicals poison the soil. In Sweden permanent-yield monoforests were expected to keep costs down, but the loss of biodiversity has reduced the productivity of forest ecosystems and the size of the trees themselves. A final example is nuclear power which was supposed to reduce energy costs but had the opposite effect.
I would add to this list the tendency of capitalism to destroy the ability of the working-class and peasantry to reproduce its own subsistence because of export agriculture. Export agriculture not only wastes valuable land on cattle ranching or flower-growing, it also is responsible for environmental degradation that can ruin a country's economy. The bourgeois press has reported that Honduras and Nicaragua have been virtually destroyed by the recent hurricane. The answer that the imperialist bourgeoisie puts forward is more of the same is needed. They hope to get these countries back on their feet as soon as possible so that foreign currency can be earned through the export of bananas, beef, tobacco, coffee, etc. Such practice can only lead to further misery.
Although this sort of contradiction has been true historically, I would make the case that it has reached crisis proportions in the past 10 to 20 years. It not only affects Central America but China as well. China experienced devastating floods this year because of deforestation along the Yangtze river. Meanwhile, the Chinese "Communists" who differ only slightly from the governments of Honduras and Nicaragua show no signs of retreating from their suicidal assault on the environment.
Doug told me that when he was finished with "Wall Street," he would turn his attention to environmental questions. I would argue that until he does, he will not be in a strong position to consider the capitalist system in its full complexity. When you stick a thermometer up Wall Street's rectum, you might get a 98.6 reading, but when you examine the rest of the patient you might find an advanced case of gangrene. That seems to be the case for much of Latin America, Africa and Asia. In other words., the overwhelming majority of the world.
Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)