>
> On Apr 6, 2009, at 2:18 PM, SA wrote:
>
> It goes of a piece with Brenner's tendency to write about this period
>> using language that seems to suggest that the capitalists have spent the
>> last 25 years in a constant state of panic over the creeping stagnation
>> enveloping capitalism....whereas I've mostly noticed them having a great
>> time and being suffused with confidence.
>>
>
> This is also the beef I have with Patrick Bond. Capitalists have had a big
> old time of it more or less since the great bull market took off in August
> 1982. Labor was crushed and profits began a long uptrend. But wait! says a
> certain breed of Marxist - profits are not up, if you adjust them properly.
> But that assumes that the capitalists are too stupid to understand how
> poorly they're really doing. It's as if they're subject to a special version
> of the money illusion.___________________________________
>
>
I wouldn't want to speak for Patrick, who I've only ever met once, but I can
imagine that the argument is that the profits, while made real by being
monetized, are fictional... and indicative of the fragility of the bulge,
bubble or whatever you wanna call neoliberal profitability. And, it seems
to me, the things capitalists don't see coming are myriad.