Capitalism’s Crisis Deepens: Essays on the Global Economic Meltdown

346 Pages·2016·8.41 MB·English

by  Richard D. Wolff

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ht While most mainstream commentators view the crisis that A RICHARD D. WOLFF “The once robust debates over
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e Kni provoked the Great Recession as having passed, these essays P capitalism and alternative economic
an from Richard D. Wolff paint a far less rosy picture. systems were never settled in the
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Drawing attention to the extreme downturn in most of capitalism’s old A former Soviet Union. They were only
centers, the unequal growth in its new centers, and the resurgence of a
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global speculative bubble, Wolff—in his uniquely acessible style—makes
I anticommunist hysteria and then,
the case that the crisis should be grasped not as a passing moment but as S
after 1989, by delusional capitalist
an evolving stage in capitalism’s history. M
triumphalism. The 2008 crash of
Praise for Richard D. Wolff and Democracy at Work ’ global capitalism reopened the space
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for those debates to resume. . . .
“Probably America’s most prominent Marxist economist.”
—New York Times Magazine Interest in alternatives to capitalism
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grows rapidly now much as popular
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“Ideas of economic democracy are very much in the air, as they should be,
support for capitalism wanes. The
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with increasing urgency in the midst of today’s serious crises. Richard I
essays in this book both respond to
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MY Richard D. Wolff is professor of development, ideas that can be implemented directly and carried forward. A S this remarkable shifting of ideas
CY economics emeritus at the University of very valuable contribution in troubled times.” and ideological positions.”
Massachusetts, Amherst, and a visiting ––Noam Chomsky D
CMY — Richard D. Wolff, from the preface
professor at the New School University E
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“Wolff offers a rich and much-needed corrective to the views of mainstream
in New York. His groundbreaking book
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economists and pundits. It would be difficult to come away from this with
Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism
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anything but an acute appreciation of what is needed to get us out of this mess.”
inspired the creation of the nonprofit
––Stanley Aronowitz E
organization Democracy at Work
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(www.democracyatwork.info). “Richard Wolff is the leading socialist economist in the country. This book
is required reading for anyone concerned about a fundamental transforma- S
tion of the ailing capitalist economy!”

––Cornel West WR

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ESSAYS ON THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC MELTDOWN
Social Sciences $18.95
CAPITALISM’S
CRISIS
DEEPENS
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Capitalism’s Crisis Deepens
Essays on the Global
Economic Meltdown
2010–2014
Richard D. Wolff
Edited by Michael L. Palmieri and Dante Dallavalle
Chicago, Illinois
Haymarket Books
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© 2016 Richard D. Wolff
Published by
Haymarket Books
P.O. Box 180165
Chicago, IL 60618
773-583-7884
[email protected]
www.haymarketbooks.org
ISBN: 978-1-60846-595-8
Trade distribution:
In the US, through Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, www.cbsd.com
In the UK, Turnaround Publisher Services, www.turnaround-uk.com
In Canada, Publishers Group Canada, www.pgcbooks.ca
All other countries, Publishers Group Worldwide, www.pgw.com
This book was published with the generous support
of the Wallace Action Fund and Lannan Foundation.
Printed in Canada by union labor.
Cover design by Josh On.
Library of Congress CIP Data is available.
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Contents
Preface ix
Part I: Crisis Capitalism 1
Capitalist Crisis and the Return to Marx 3
The Myth of “American Exceptionalism” Implodes 17
The Revenge of Trickle-Down Economics 20
In Economic Crisis, Capitalism Delivers the Bads 23
A Tale of Two Lootings 26
Capitalism and Poverty 28
Five Reasons Why the Crisis Persists 32
Capitalism’s Ideological Crutches 34
Capitalism Efficient? We Can Do So Much Better 39
From Detroit to China to Bangladesh: Capitalism’s
Costs, Capitalists’ Freedom 42
Economic Development in Rana Plaza 44
Capitalism, Democracy, and Elections 48
“Pure” Capitalism Is Pure Fantasy 51
How Capitalism’s Great Relocation
Pauperized America’s Middle Class 54
US Political Dysfunction and Capitalism’s Withdrawal 57
Capitalism and Unemployment 60
Capitalism and Democracy: Year-End Lessons 62
Political Corruption and Capitalism 65
The Wages of Global Capitalism 68
Part II: Crisis Economics 73
Austerity 75
US Tax Deal Brings Austerity Closer 75
Main Street Moves against Wall Street 76
Why Capitalism Is Choosing Plan B 79
The Truth about Profits and Austerity 81
The Great Austerity Shell Game 83
Austerity, US Style, Exposed 86
Austerity: Another “Policy Mistake” 89
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Taxes 92
Corporations to Government: Give Us More, Tax Us Less 92
How the Rich Soaked the Rest of Us 96
Who Really Pays Taxes 98
Public Sector 102
Going Beyond Private versus Public 102
The Hidden Money 106
Social Security’s Explosive Injustices 109
Banking 112
Lehman Brothers: Financially and Morally Bankrupt 112
Big Finance’s Pathology Compels the Logic
of Socialized Banking 114
Debt 118
S&P’s Judgment on US Debt Is Substandard and Poor 118
“Living Within Our Means”
and Standard and Poor’s Downgrade 119
Deficits, Debts, and Deepening Crisis 122
Europe’s Debt Crisis Deepens 125
Déjà Vu: Germany Tightens Its Economic Power over Europe 128
The Greek Crisis, Austerity, and a Postcapitalist Future 136
Scapegoat Economics 2015 150
Greece Needs Our Solidarity in Its Struggle Against Austerity 155
Deficits, Debts, and Demagogues 157
The So-Called Recovery 160
Recovery, What Recovery? 160
Economic Recovery for Whom? 162
After Five Years: Report Card on Crisis Capitalism 165
Recovery Hype: American Capitalism’s
Weapon of Mass Distraction 168
Why Debates over the Fed’s Interest Rate Miss the Point 171
Capitalism and Its Regulation Delusion 174
Part III: Crisis Politics 179
Government Intervention 181
Government Economic Intervention for Whom? 181
This Is No Bailout for Main Street America 183
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Ghost of New Deal Haunts Democrats’ Agenda,
but It’s Time to Summon FDR 185
Federal Reserve 188
Ben Bernanke’s Silence Speaks Volumes 188
Bernanke’s Speech Was Only a Minor Footnote
to Enduring Crisis 190
Janet Yellen and I Were Taught to Revere Capitalism.
But It’s a Failing System 192
Debt Ceilings and Budget Battles 195
Budget Battles: Sound, Fury, and Fakery 195
Fiscal Cliff Follies: Political Theater Distracts
from Key Problems with the Fix 199
Economic Policy Debates: Theater of Distraction 202
Political Economy of Partisan “Debates” 205
Ongoing Crisis and Liberal Blindness 205
The Truth about “Class War” in America 208
The Political Economy of Obama’s Reelection 211
Class War Redux: How the American Right
Embraced Marxist Struggle 214
Critics of Capitalism Must Include Its Definition 217
US Politics’ True Bipartisan Consensus:
Capitalism Is Untouchable 223
Part IV: Crisis Responses, Going Beyond Capitalism 227
The Occupy Movement 229
Occupy Wall Street Ends Capitalism’s Alibi 229
How the 1 Percent Got Richer,
while the 99 Percent Got Poorer 231
The Originality of Occupy Wall Street 234
Harvard Students Join the Movement 236
Criticism, Violence, and Roosting Chickens 239
Occupy Production: A Vision for Democracy at Work 240
Occupy the Corporation 242
Class, Change, and Revolution 245
Debates on the Left 250
What’s Left of the American Left? 250
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A New Dawn for the US Left 252
A Socialism for the Twenty-First Century 254
Debating Capitalism—Redefining Outdated Terms 264
Lessons from Labor 268
Lost Elections, Strategic Lessons
for Workers’ Movements Everywhere 268
Detroit’s Decline Is a Distinctively Capitalist Failure 271
What Drove Organized Labor’s Decline in the United States? 274
Lessons from Chattanooga 277
Alternatives 281
The Threats of Business and the Business of Threats 281
Manifesto for Economic Democracy and Ecological Sanity 284
Economic Democracy, Not Austerity or Keynesian Growth 290
Yes, There Is an Alternative to Capitalism:
Mondragon Shows the Way 293
System Change, or There and Back Again:
Capitalism, Socialism, Fascism 296
Silence Is Louder Than Their Words:
Effective Economic Policies Neither Candidate Advocates 303
The Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Failures
of Actually Existing Economic Systems 306
Economic Prosperity and Economic Democracy:
The Worker Co-op Solution 309
Socialism and Worker Self-Directed Enterprises 312
Index 319
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Preface
The second worst crash of global capitalism in seventy-five years continues,
approaching its tenth year. The so-called recovery since 2009 has bypassed
the lower 90 percent of the people and left them further below the top 10
percent. Those who gained the most wealth in the last half-century—the
very people most responsible for bringing on the crash—are the only ones
now recovered. Those who gained the most wealth in the last half-cen-
tury—the very people most responsible for bringing on the crash—are
the only ones now recovered. The government bailouts they sought and
obtained quickly in the dark days of late 2008 benefited mostly them. The
weakness, slowness, and partiality of the recovery both reflect and worsen
growing economic inequality. To preserve their accumulating wealth, large
corporations and those they enrich wield ever more undemocratic power
over the political and cultural realms of society. Their goals are self-preser-
vation and self-aggrandizement.
These features of capitalism are all social failures in terms of justice,
democracy, equality, liberty, and ecological sanity. Yet mainstream me-
dia, politicians, and academics doggedly act and speak as though capi-
talism were the obviously “optimal” system to be continued, reinforced,
and celebrated. By proceeding as though we are not in fact experiencing
capitalism’s systemic failures, they perform their ideological assignments.
They also proceed as though either no alternative systems exist or
the alternatives merit no discussion and debate. What “problems” of
capitalism are even admitted are then quickly buried under mountains
of commentary on the finer points of this or that fiscal and monetary
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