But I agree that the new regime of accumulation required to set things right isn't immediately on the horizon (though some folk have argued that Japan can become a hegemon once its economic deadwood is cleared). What are the regulationists who posited a post-fordist mode saying now? My doctoral supervisor (your favourite, David Harvey) wrote in 1989, in The Condition of Postmodernity, that the flexible regime was embryonic but potentially there, but he was never too convinced about that. I haven't followed the regulationists more recently... what's their story about the way forward?
> From: Mark Jones <Jones_M at netcomuk.co.uk>
> If there is another long boom, it will only be after a substantial
> write-down of existing capital. Much of the investment mania of the past
> few years has created production lines in consumer goods, automobiles
> etc which are certain to be obsoleted before they pay back. But the
> disincentives to new investment will be very strong. So the coming slump
> is likely to be as protracted as the 1930s, which rearming not
> demand-stimulation put an end to.