[lbo-talk] Capitalism and Collapse

[Patrick Bond]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com>
> Yes yes yes. This is part of the argument I've had many times with
> Patrick Bond over the last decade. I'd only argue with the word
> "crisis" in this context - a crisis is a moment when the reproduction
> of a system is in doubt. Mere quotidian turbulence doesn't qualify.

Doug, the 'reproduction of a system' was not really in doubt in 1929-32, but 
capitalist 'crisis' was not a bad description of those years, surely?

Why not advance to the Robert Cox definition which - I'm nowhere near my 
copy of Production Power and World Order - if I recall is that a 'crisis' 
sets in when the system's natural self-corrective mechanisms no longer work 
to stabilise or equilibrate the system, and problems get worse, hence 
requiring an *external* 'solution' to (or at minimum displacement of) the 
problem that is contrary to the system's internal logic.

So a major stock market 'correction' which devalorises vast sums (was it $7 
trillion for the dot.com 'crisis') would represent such a state.