dumenil & levy - the crisis of neoliberalism (2011)

[...]... true of the crisis of the 1 970s The new course of events, in the transition to neol iberalism, prolonged the crisis under new forms during the 1980s, with the financial crisis that followed the deep recession at the beginning of the decade Most li kely, the same will be t rue of the contemporary crisis Once positive growth rates prevail in the wake of the contract ion of output, this will mark the. .. by the " long boom" of the second half of the 1990s (With the benefit of hind­ sight, the first crisis after 2000, the recession, and the fall of the stock mar­ ket, which marked the end of this boom, can be interpreted as a rehearsal, foreshadowing the collapse that came at the end of the decade.) The 1990s will be remembered as the heyday of the neoliberal endeavor, and the following yea rs as the. .. does not offset the risks specifically inherent in the dependency of the U.S economy on foreign financing As of the end of 2009, the th reat of a sudden or gradual crisis of the dol lar represents a potential major development that would thoroughly transform the featu res of the contemporary crisis The occur­ rence of such a currency crisis would precipitate the course of history, both concerning the new... or a financial sector in the service of the productive economy) In Europe, as a result of the coexistence of state and private sectors, the notion of mixed economies was preferred to managerial capitalism Again, a major crisis destabi lized these social patterns: the structural crisis of the 1 970s The crisis was the consequence of the downward trend of the profit rate and the cumulative inflation... and 1 970s were both the out­ comes of downward profitability trends Conversely, the Great Depression and the crisis of neoliberal ism are not linked to the downward trend of the profit rate In both instances, the profit rate was undertaking a slow pro­ cess of restoration Neither an upward nor a downward trend of the profit rate can be considered a determinant of the contemporary crisis Th is does not... change, the trends of the profit rate, and the maturity of the institutional framework in charge of the stabil ity of the macroeconomy (notably, monetary pol icy) Structu ra l C rises: Profita bil ity a n d F i n ancial Hegemony The three phases in the history of modern capita lism were punctuated by the occurrence of last i ng a nd deep crises, denoted here as "st ructural crises." They a re the crisis of. .. itself "the crisis of the second financial hegemony." Both were consequences of the exercise of hegemony, class, and i nternational hegemonies, the boundless expansion of the demands of the upper classes that pushed economic mechanisms to and, fi nally, be­ yond the frontier of sustai nability 22 The Strategy of the U.S U pper Classes in Neoliberalism A common feature of structural crises is their multiple... beyond the wild dynamics of neoliberal capitalism Abstracting from the updating of some of the series, the last changes to the present text were made in October 2009, and there is obviously more to come It would be unreal istic, however, to expect a final outcome in the near future The book covers the causes of the crisis, its outbreak, and the first phase of the contraction of output around the globe,... part of the world 24 The Strategy of the U.S U pper Classes in Neoliberalism exploded The U.S economy demonstrated the risks in herent in neoliberal global ization in advance of Europe Although the two types of developments above-quest for high in­ come and impaired macro governance-were typical of the major capi­ tal ist countries i n general, the fi nancial-global hegemony of the Un ited States- neol... however, the issue of previous phases The comparison with earlier periods reveals the traits proper to the new period The analysis of the social, political, and economic trends that led to the establ ish ment of neoliberalism is also tell­ i ng of the nature and fate of this social order Symmetrically, the notion of a crisis of neoliberal ism impl ies a possible transition to a new phase, and the nature of