Re: [OPE] The myth of market confidence

> I don't want to concern myself at all with "the characteristics of the next period" and things like that.
> When a major significant event occurs forcing a change in capitalist policy, many Marxists try to extrapolate this into a
> grandiose prophecy about how things will be different in the future. Without research, they mistake the surface
> phenomena for the underlying trend, confusing short-term trends and long-term trends. They think that a sea-change or
> watershed has already occurred, when all that has happened is that the bourgeois classes have shifted from plan A to
> plan B.

Hi Jurriaan:

Well, I suppose _any_ change under capitalism could be rationalized in that way: was the implementation
of Keynesian policies or the growth of fascism simply a matter of capital shitfing to Plan B? It seems to me
that it is entirely legitimate and necessary to recognize and describe new developments and the emergence
of new periods/conjunctures as they are happening - even though it is safer to wait until the end of the period to
describe the characteristics of the period.

We will see whose perspective is correct, won't we? If it is just a matter of "market confidence" or
whether the crisis is deeper and leading to more profound changes - either way we will be able to
see for ourselves. I think that all of the various postulates about what is happening will shortly be
put to the test. Afterwards, we can see how we scored.

In solidarity, Jerry

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Received on Sat Oct 11 08:09:24 2008