albo - in and out of crisis; the global financial meltdown and left alternatives (2010)

[...]... that is increasingly “finance-led” in terms of the corporate decisions that determine investment flows and even the decisions individuals and households make in meeting their needs Finance’s enhanced place in the political alliances of capital and, in the power structures of the state, has gained it a more determining role in the shaping of government policy The financial excesses that triggered the Great... state and finance developed in tandem, and came to play a new kind of imperial role at the center of global capitalism And in light of the contradictions that were produced in this process, Chapter 4 traces the development of the crisis that began in 2007 and explains the active role of the American state, both under Bush and Obama, in containing the crisis in ways that reproduced the structures of class... importance of expanding the meetings of the Group of Seven (G7) core capitalist states to the wider pivotal Group of Twenty that included the leading capitalist states of the Global South The G20 meetings during the crisis accomplished little in concrete policy terms, but they did confirm a commitment among the participating states to keep the internationalization of capital going through free trade and foreign... countries since the Great Depression, involving an overall decline in world output, with over 15 million people—or 10 percent of the labor force—officially unemployed in the United States at the beginning of 2010 Following 1.3 million home foreclosures in 2007 in the U.S., there were 2.3 million more in 2008, and the numbers continued to rise all the way through to 2010 Apart from the massive bailouts of the. .. of class inequality and power domestically and internationally 26 IN AND OUT OF CRISIS Turning in Chapter 5 to an analysis of how the relationship between industry and finance played itself out in the crisis in the auto sector, the full class dimensions of the crisis are brought to the fore; this leads to a sober examination in Chapter 6 of the impasse of the North American labor movement and how seriously... the North American Left The remit of Chapter 7 is to try to think creatively about alternatives, not least in terms of how advancing the case for democratic economic planning, including via nationalization of the banks and the auto industry, must become integrated with demands for immediate reforms The realization of such alternatives will require the development of the kinds of labor, community, and. .. autonomous of the American empire This is a diversion from thinking about what really needs to be done by way of creating the space for the alternatives we need, above all within the heart of the empire The theme of U.S economic decline has in fact held sway as the primary discourse of the broad progressive movement in the U.S for some time (a variation of a wider theme in socialist theory of capitalism in. .. then re-starts, or in this or that policy innovation, but in the class politics and struggles that block, permit and execute various strategies to advance material interests This book will investigate some of these class strategies in the making of the financial crisis and in shaping the struggles out of the crisis In doing so, this book departs from the common tendency on the Left no less than on the. .. markets and corporations into geographic spaces previously excluded; the “flexibilization” of labor and the lowering of working-class wages, rights and expectations—all supported by an accompanying overhaul of state administration Many of the innovations in finance have in fact facilitated this restructuring in systems of production and spread them through the internationalization of capital It is indeed the. .. advances for the North American Left CHAPTER TWO NEOLIBERALISM, FINANCE, AND CRISES S ince at least the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, the U.S and other states have embraced an ideology of scaling back the role of government in economic life and letting the invisible hand of the unfettered market work its magic Rhetoric notwithstanding, this has not meant a withdrawal of the state from regulating economic . Long 1970s IN AND OUT OF CRISIS THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL MELTDOWN AND LEFT ALTERNATIVES Greg Albo, Sam Gindin, and Leo Panitch In and Out of Crisis: The Global Financial Meltdown and Left Alternatives Greg. strategies in the making of the fi nancial crisis and in shaping the struggles out of the crisis. In doing so, this book departs from the common tendency on the Left no less than on the Right. The Nation to Monthly Review—that the fi nancial crisis in itself spelled the end of neoliberal- 16 IN AND OUT OF CRISIS ism and the pivotal role of the U.S. in the world economy. To single out