[OPE-L:102] [OPE-L:338] RE: Re: a slaughtering of capital values

A.B.Trigg@OPEN.AC.UK
Tue, 17 Nov 1998 11:09:11 -0000

Isn't this the problem with Japan, that there needs to be a slaughtering
of capital in order for the crisis there to be overcome? Unless some
banks in particular are allowed to go bankrupt then there is no way out.
A Keynesian analysis would seem particularly irrelevant here since Japan
has had 9 Keynesian injections of spending in the 1990s none of which
have been able to kick start the economy out of its financial problems.
But is this merely a financial problem or does it run deep? Is the
cause of the crisis financial over exuberance or real profitability
problems?

Sorry to meet your question with more questions Jerry, but it would be
useful to know if any work has been done on the situation in Japan,
particularly from comrades there.

Andrew Trigg.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gerald Levy [SMTP:glevy@pratt.edu]
> Sent: 13 November 1998 14:16
> To: ope-l@galaxy.csuchico.edu
> Subject: [OPE-L:335] Re: a slaughtering of capital values
>
> Michael P wrote in [OPE-L:334]:
>
> > In Robert Brenner's essay, he cited Marx's expression, "a
> slaughtering
> > of capital values." He says that he cannot recall where Marxused
> that
> > expression. Do you?
>
> No, but if "a slaughtering of capital values" is thought to be
> synonymous
> with the "*destruction of capital* through crisis", see _TSV_, Part
> II,
> Ch. XVII ("Ricardo's Theory of Accumulation and a Critique of It. The
> Very
> Nature of Capital Leads to Crisis"), Sections 6-14 (pp. 492-535 in
> Progress ed.). Especially see pp. 495-496
>
> btw, in looking through that section of _TSV_ again, I am reminded
> that
> (surprisingly) we have never had much of a discussion on this list
> regarding:
>
> a) the meaning of crisis;
> b) what happens during a crisis;
> c) what are the causes of crisis, and;
> d) how crises are overcome.
>
> Wouldn't these make interesting and important topics for discussion?
>
> Also, to deal with a contemporary development, who can explain the
> current
> uneven development of crisis internationally? E.g. why hasn't the
> "Asian
> flu", including the recession in Japan, had more of an impact on the
> N.A.
> economies? Are we on the verge of another international capitalist
> recession (or depression) or is that not "in the cards"?
>
> In solidarity, Jerry