The Institute for Critical Study of Scociety

This interactive workshop will have two brief (20 minute maximum) presentations on the nature of the present economic crisis of capitalism, which has sent many economists back to the 1930s for guidance for today's reality. What is similar and what is different about today's crisis? After financial markets were saved from a 1930s style collapse, the "Great Recession" persists with an effective unemployment rate of over 20 percent among an outraged population in the real economy where we as workers earn a living and support our families. The only alternative put forward by some to the failed policies of the past, monetarism and tax cutting, has been a Keynesian return to 1930s style government intervention in the economy including massive deficit spending. Can this work today? Can it be said to have worked then when it was WWII that finally ended the Great Depression? As against these two orthodoxies, what is Marx's concept of a general crisis of capitalism and the inter-relation between the 'Falling Rate of Profit' and 'Under-Consumption'? What direction does Marx's approach lead to in this crisis? What is Marx's concept of a break with capitalist crisis-prone value production?

This interactive workshop will have two brief (20 minute maximum) presentations on the nature of the present economic crisis of capitalism, which has sent many economists back to the 1930s for guidance for today's reality. What is similar and what is different about today's crisis? After financial markets were saved from a 1930s style collapse, the "Great Recession" persists with an effective unemployment rate of over 20 percent among an outraged population in the real economy where we as workers earn a living and support our families. The only alternative put forward by some to the failed policies of the past, monetarism and tax cutting, has been a Keynesian return to 1930s style government intervention in the economy including massive deficit spending. Can this work today? Can it be said to have worked then when it was WWII that finally ended the Great Depression? As against these two orthodoxies, what is Marx's concept of a general crisis of capitalism and the inter-relation between the 'Falling Rate of Profit' and 'Under-Consumption'? What direction does Marx's approach lead to in this crisis? What is Marx's concept of a break with capitalist crisis-prone value production?