Re: [OPE] Another MarxMyth Exposed in the Bud: Marx on the financial crisis of 1857

> Booklovers turn to Karl Marx as financial crisis bites in Germany
> Kate Connolly in Berlin
> Wednesday October 15 2008
> guardian.co.uk
> But for those not quite ready to immerse themselves in Marxist theory,
> Marx's correspondence to Friedrich Engels at the time of an earlier US
> economic crisis makes more entertaining reading. "The American Crash is a
> delight to behold and it's far from over," he wrote in 1857, confidently
> predicting the imminent and complete collapse of Wall Street.
> Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008

Does anyone check sources at "The Guardian"?

To begin with, the quotation is: "The *American crash* is superb and not yet
over by a long chalk". It was written by ENGELS, not Marx (Engels
to Marx, October 29, 1857).

And Engels did NOT predict the "imminent and complete collapse of
Wall Street": his prediction was FAR more limited. He wrote:

"We still have to see the collapse of the better part of the import houses;
so far only one here or there would appear to have crashed. The
repercussion in England would seem to have begun with the Liverpool
Borough Bank. *Tant mieux* that means that for the next 3 or 4
years, commerce will be again in a bad way. *Nous avons maintenant
de la chance*".
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1857/letters/57_10_29.htm

If Connolly's claim was correct then Marx's prediction about the 1857
crisis would have been manifestly proven by history to be laughably false.
Instead, we see that the reference was to a letter by Engels in which he
did NOT make this prediction. I guess this is on par for the standard which
we have come to expect from journalists when referring to Marx.

In solidarity, Jerry

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Received on Thu Oct 16 06:15:29 2008