New Book: The Failure of Capitalist Production

The Failure of Capitalist Production: Underlying Causes of the Great Recession

by Andrew Kliman

Published by Pluto Press, November 2011

Paperback / 256pp. / ISBN-13: 978-0745332390

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“Clear, rigorous and combative. Kliman demonstrates that the current economic crisis is a consequence of the fundamental dynamic of capitalism, unlike the vast bulk of superficial contemporary commentary that passes for economic analysis.”
. – Rick Kuhn, Deutscher Prize winner, Reader in Politics at the Australian National University

“Among the myriad publications on the present day crisis, this work stands out as something unusual. Kliman cogently argues against the view that the crisis is ultimately rooted in financialization. He is an excellent theorist, and an equally excellent analyst of empirical data.”
, – Paresh Chattopadhyay, Université du Québec à Montréal

“One of the very best of the rapidly growing series of works seeking to explain our economic crisis. … The scholarship is exemplary and the writing is crystal clear. Highly recommended!”
. – Professor Bertell Ollman, New York University, author of Dance of the Dialectic

The Failure of Capitalist Production is essential reading for all Marxists and lefts interested in what caused the Great Recession.  It debunks the fads and fashionable arguments of neoliberalism, underconsumption and inequality with a battery of facts.  It restores Marx’s law of profitability to the centre of any explanation of capitalist crisis with compelling evidence and searching analysis.  It must be read.
. – Michael Roberts, Michael Roberts Blog (full review here)

The thesis presented in the book stands out in a number of ways from many contemporary radical interpretations (notably the financialised-underconsumptionist thesis advanced by the influential Monthly Review … and that of the Marxist political geographer David Harvey). … Kliman provides far more compelling empirical evidence that American corporations’ rate of profit did not recover in a sustained manner after the early 1980s. …  A crucial finding undermining the financialisation thesis is that Kliman demonstrates how American corporations have not, as is often claimed, invested a smaller share of their profit in production.
. – Socialist Voice (full review here)

UPCOMING EVENTS ON THE BOOK:

…..Feb. 6, 2012. NEW YORK CITY. 7 PM. Bluestockings Books, 172 Allen St., Manhattan. (212) 777-6028.

…..Feb. 10. TORONTO. 1:30 PM. York University Dept. of Political Science; Verney Room, Ross Building South, 6th Floor.

…..Feb. 15. WINNIPEG. 2:30-4:00 PM. Global Political Economy program, University of Manitoba; Concourse Lounge, University College. (On Feb. 16, 7:30 PM, Kliman will also talk on “Reclaiming Marx’s Capital” at the Marx Reading Group. Aqua Books, 274 Garry Street, Winnipeg. (204) 943-7555.)

…..Feb. 22. NEW YORK CITY. 8-9:50 PM. New School, talk sponsored by Student Action Initiative (open to public). 80 5th Ave., room 529. Corner of 14th St., Manhattan.

…..Feb. 29. TAMPERE, Finland. 4:15 PM. University of Tampere, Linna Building, Väinö Linna Hall, Kalevantie 5, Tampere. Part 1 of  seminar on “Origins of the Current Crises: Consequences and Political Alternatives” with talks by Alex Demirovic and Andrew Kliman. Origins of the Current Crises.

…..March 1. HELSINKI, Finland. 3:15 PM. House of the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies, Lecture Hall 505, Kirkkokatu 6, Helsinki. Part 2 of seminar on “Origins of the Current Crises: Consequences and Political Alternatives“ with talks by Alex Demirovic and Andrew Kliman. Consequences and Political Alternatives.

…..March 5. LONDON. 6:30 PM. Bookmarks Bookshop. 1 Bloomsbury Street, WC1B3QE. Introduction by Joseph Choonara, talk by Kliman, discussion, wine.

…..March 6. SALFORD / MANCHESTER, UK. 6 PM. Mary Seacole G21 (ground floor), Salford University, Manchester.

…..March 8. SHEFFIELD, UK.

…..March 10. NEWCASTLE, UK.

…..weekend of March 17-18. NEW YORK CITY. Pace University, 1 Pace Plaza, Manhattan. Left Forum panel on book. Speakers: Brendan Cooney, Barry Finger, Alan Freeman, Anne Jaclard, and Mike West. Comments by Kliman.

Check this space again for additional events and additional details, or contact Marxist-Humanist Initiative.

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DESCRIPTION OF BOOK, AUDIO/VIDEO INTERVIEWS, AND SYNOPSIS FOLLOW.

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Wolff on Wall Street

by Seth Weiss

Richard Wolff, an economics professor who taught for many years at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and is now at The New School, spoke recently at the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park, just a few blocks from the site of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. [1] Wolff, one of today’s most prominent Marxist thinkers, argued that “there is a reality behind the concerns we all have” about “grotesque inequality,” “the attack on the natural environment,” and “the fundamental corruption of our political system,” and stressed that “the most important issue” for him is that “we have the courage to name and change the reality behind all of that … the economic system called capitalism.”

In drawing attention to our economic system rather than just the manifold horrors and inequities it generates, Wolff appears to be well in advance of the burgeoning Occupy Wall Street movement, which sparked demonstrations in more than 1500 cities across the globe, under the banner “From Tahrir Square to Times Square,” on October 15^th. [2] Indeed, much of the movement continues to focus on issues like corporate power and greed, corruption in the financial sector, and the obscene salaries and bonuses of bankers and hedge fund mangers instead of the system which engenders such phenomena. The “Declaration of the Occupation of New York City,” for instance, displays a strikingly singular focus on corporate power and malfeasance, offering up a veritable laundry list of grievances attributed to “corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality.” [3] Read More