[lbo-talk] Capitalism and Collapse

Patrick Bond pbond at mail.ngo.za
Sat Aug 11 04:48:35 PDT 2007


----- 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.



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