Turbulence in the world economy

Monthly Review

Volumn 51, Issue 2, 1999, Pages 38-52

  McNally, David ^a  

^a YORK UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0346295045     PISSN: 00270520     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.14452/MR-051-02-1999-06_6     Document Type: Article

References (23)

1. Robert Brenner, "The Economics of Global Turbulence," New Left Review 229 (May-June 1998). Further references to Brenner's study will be given in the body of the text and indicated with page numbers.
2. Karl Marx, Grundrisse, trans. Martin Nicolaus (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973), p. 732, Marx's emphasis.
3. See my article "Marxism in the Age of Information," New Politics, vol. 6, no. 4 (Winter 1998), pp. 99-106.
4. Karl Marx, Capital, vol. 3, trans. David Fernbach (Harmondworth: Penguin, 1981), p. 621.
5. Doug Henwood, Wall Street, updated edition (London: Verso, 1998), p. 110.
6. T. H. Aston and C. H. E. Philpin, eds., The Brenner Debate (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985).
7. See, for example, Andy Kilmister, "Marxists and economics," International Viewpoint 307 (January 1999), pp. 34-35,
8. and Michael Lebowitz's forthcoming piece, "In Brenner, Everything is Reversed," in Historical Materialism.
9. It is beyond the bounds of this article to work through how Brenner's concept of competition works at cross purposes to other aspects of his analysis. While largely agreeing with the methodological criticisms made by Lebowitz (see note 7 above), I also see some important arguments in Brenner re: accumulation and profitability that deserve to be taken seriously (even if this requires a critical recasting). A recasting of Brenner's analysis requires, however, its translation into the terms of Marx's theory of value. In this regard, I can only agree with the claim by Ben Fine, Costas Lapavitsas, and Dimitris Milonakis that "It is the lack of a value-theoretic approach that lies behind the weaknesses in Brenner's approach." See their article "Addressing the World Economy: Two Steps Back," Capital & Class 67 (Spring 1999), p. 81. Unfortunately, these authors fail to acknowledge or build upon some of the interesting moves Brenner makes despite the theoretical problems that run through his piece.
10. Brenner also rejects "demand side" explanations that locate the roots of the crisis in insufficiency of demand by workers and/or capitalists, but he does not deal with these in any detail.
11. Karl Marx, Capital, vol. 1, trans. Ben Fowkes (Harmondworth: Penguin Books, 1976), p. 777.
12. The same results can also be achieved by cheapening the elements of variable capital (those things consumed by workers).
13. One of the most sophisticated of these explanations, which Brenner cites, is John Weeks, Capital and Exploitation (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981).
14. Also important in this regard is David Harvey, The Limits to Capital (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982).
15. It is important to note that the same process works in terms of downward pressures during periods of inflation although it is relative - not absolute - prices which are the issue.
16. Karl Marx, Theories of Surplus Value, Part II (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1968), p. 495.
17. I should note again that Brenner does not cast his argument in Marx's value terms. In my view, however, his analysis can be "translated" into these terms - a translation (or theoretical remapping) which would help overcome some of its shortcomings.
18. Brenner's focus on national blocs of capital is important, but undertheorized. Clearly it requires that we understand the continuing importance of the nation-state in the world economy. Fine, Lapitsas and Milonakis are right to point out that Brenner underplays the importance of the internationalization of production and finance over the past twenty-five years, but they fail to come to terms with the national frameworks that continue to define many of the dynamics of the world economy - especially when it comes to relations between national currencies on the world market.
19. David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity (Cambridge, MA; Blackwell, 1989), pp. 182-85. While Harvey itemizes other strategies, he rightly sees these as having dominated the recent period.
20. I should emphasize that these are not mutually exclusive strategies.
21. See, for example, my "Globalization on Trial: Crisis and Class Struggle in East Asia," Monthly Review, vol. 50, no. 4 (September 1998), esp. pp. 7-9.
22. On the sluggishness of the U.S. recovery, see Peter Brimelow, "Our underachieving economy," Forbes, October 7, 1996, pp. 120-27.
23. For recent data on overcapacity in autos see "The Car Industry," The Economist, February 13, 1999, pp. 23-25.