The Economy Of Analysis

[Q]

Arthur Bough wrote a series of three parts (http://boffyblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/economy-of-analysis-part-1.html) about how the left, in his view, is getting the capitalist crisis completely wrong:


The global economy is clearly slowing. The reasons for that slowing are not uniform, even though, as a single global economy, the reasons are interrelated. Yet, much, if not all, of the Left analysis of the Global Economy, and its current “crisis”, is framed in pretty uni-linear terms, as being simply a “Crisis Of Capitalism”.

Such an approach is not Marxist, because it does not begin from the starting point of any Marxist analysis, which is an analysis of the concrete reality of economic conditions, as they exist within each economy, and how these are, in turn, related to the global system. It fails to analyse the global economy, in the terms that most Marxist economic analysis has used, from Marx onwards, that of “combined and uneven development”. Instead it takes as its starting point the idea, put forward repeatedly by catastrophists, of various types, that Capitalism is in its death throes, and the only puzzle is how it has managed not to enter the, long awaited, final collapse before now!

Read on:
- Part 1 (http://boffyblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/economy-of-analysis-part-1.html)
- Part 2 (http://boffyblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/economy-of-analysis-part-2.html)
- Part 3 (http://boffyblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/economy-of-analysis-part-3.html)

[jake williams]

Could you, relatively consisely, explain what his analysis of the problem is and how it differs from conventional ones?

[Q]

Could you, relatively consisely, explain what his analysis of the problem is and how it differs from conventional ones?

Three big points seem to pop up in his texts:
- The austerity measures are, first of all, a political agenda.
- This political agenda is not in the interests of the big capitalists. In fact, there is no single capital logic. The political agenda is set by the small capitalists. Big capitalists actually benefit from free healthcare, free education and all that, as it creates better labour power commodity and therefore higher production.
- The whole world is not in crisis, this is mostly a western phenomenon.

For all the nuances and explanations, I refer to reading the texts.

[ZeroNowhere]

The global economy is clearly slowing. The reasons for that slowing are not uniform, even though, as a single global economy, the reasons are interrelated. Yet, much, if not all, of the Left analysis of the Global Economy, and its current “crisis”, is framed in pretty uni-linear terms, as being simply a “Crisis Of Capitalism”.

Such an approach is not Marxist, because it does not begin from the starting point of any Marxist analysis, which is an analysis of the concrete reality of economic conditions, as they exist within each economy, and how these are, in turn, related to the global system. It fails to analyse the global economy, in the terms that most Marxist economic analysis has used, from Marx onwards, that of “combined and uneven development”. Instead it takes as its starting point the idea, put forward repeatedly by catastrophists, of various types, that Capitalism is in its death throes, and the only puzzle is how it has managed not to enter the, long awaited, final collapse before now!

Those are phrases.


[On the falling rate of profit:] These contradictions lead to explosions, cataclysms, crises, in which by momentaneous suspension of labour and annihilation of a great portion of capital the latter is violently reduced to the point where it can go on. These contradictions, of course, lead to explosions, crises, in which momentary suspension of all labour and annihilation of a great part of the capital violently lead it back to the point where it is enabled [to go on] fully employing its productive powers without committing suicide. Yet, these regularly recurring catastrophes lead to their repetition on a higher scale, and finally to its violent overthrow.

Those are not.

[Q]

Part 4 is now online (http://boffyblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/economy-of-analysis-part-4.html), in which the point is again stressed that austerity is absolutely not in the interests of (big) capital.

[Q]

Part 5 (http://boffyblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/economy-of-analysis-part-5.html) is talking about how the stimulus package actually did work to get new growth, but was then undermined the the rightwing politicians' talk about austerity and how the economy of, say, the UK is equally bad to that of Greece in order to support an austerity agenda, which in turn created much doubt in the economy and thus lower growth figures. What is needed then, within capitalist logic, is to stimulate growth in order to solve the current debt problem.

The series will be continued next week.