Brenner in LRB

[John Mage]

A colorful ("stock market keynesianism"), underedited (repeats at the
start and end of the piece word for word that the Bush tax cuts for the
rich will do as little in the way of stimulus for the US economy as the
war on Iraq will do for US security), piece by Robert Brenner on the
conjucture and how it got that way  "Towards the Precipice : Robert
Brenner on the crisis in the US economy" at
<http://www.lrb.co.uk/v25/n03/bren01_.html>

As ever he relies on his fave one factor causal model (exchange rates  /
international "competition"), but in this piece it doesn't really much
figure - it almost seems to have been thrown in more as a matter of
habit. As for what has to be key  - overcapacity - he lays it out with
enthusiasm. And as for what would happen if  (when?) a dramatic
fall of the US dollar appears inevitable, he asks the right questions  -
would not those who could get out by selling US dollar assets make a mad
rush for the door, and then would not the Fed be faced with either instant
collapse in asset prices or raising interest rates (i.e. a collapse a
bit later) to keep the hot cash in dollars?

(except that the ruling classes of most of the world know that a crisis
for the US ruling class would be their crisis as well...)

john mage