RE: [OPE] Prabhat Patnaik, "Excessive Liquidity Preference"

From: GERALD LEVY <gerald_a_levy@msn.com>
Date: Tue Apr 21 2009 - 18:17:45 EDT

> > Now would be a good time, I think, for Marxians to deepen and popularize
> > their critiques of Keynesianism.
> Agreed. Would that exercise not start, contrary to the impressive
> Patnaik article, by stressing long-term overaccumulation (not liquidy
> trap psychology) as the cause of crisis, and hence devalorisation of
> overaccumulated capital as the necessary precondition to a recovery? I
> don't know, just asking.

 

Patrick:

 

At the risk of stating the obvious, that exercise would begin with an explanation

of the need for a long-run analysis to comprehend how it was that the crisis

developed. It would also be an analysis not only of the financial sector, but of

the industrial sector and distribution. It should also try to contextualize the

crisis in term of the international capitalist economy rather than just one

economy in isolation. It would have to analyze the actual role of the state before

and during the crisis and what limitations there are on state policy. It would

analyze the impact of the crisis on different classes and communities and

what forms of resistance have emerged to the crisis and the limitations of

alternative strategies. It would explain what would be required for capital to

overcome the crisis on its own terms and what that means from a working class

perspective. It would also situate the emergence of Keynesianism historically

and compare that to what existed previously (laissez faire) and more recently

(e.g. supply-side theory). It would evaluate Keynesianism from both a class

perspective and in its own terms (e.g. are there any 'internal contraditions'

in Keynesian theory? ... are there any logical flaws and fallacies? et al). Those

are only some of the questions which would have to be addressed.

 

How would *you* start, Patrick?

 

In solidarity, Jerry

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Received on Tue Apr 21 18:22:46 2009

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