McNally global slump; the economics and politics of crisis and resistance (2011)

Praise for Global Slump “In this book, McNally confirms—once again—his standing as one of the world’s leading Marxist scholars of capitalism For a scholarly, in-depth analysis of our current crisis that never loses sight of its political implications (for them and for us), expressed in a language that leaves no reader behind, there is simply no better place to go.” —Bertell Ollman, professor, Department of Politics, NYU, and author of Dance of the Dialectic: Steps in Marx’s Method “David McNally’s tremendously timely book is packed with significant theoretical and practical insights, and offers actually existing examples of what is to be done Global Slump urgently details how changes in the capitalist space-economy over the past 25 years, especially in the forms that money takes, have expanded widescale vulnerabilities for all kinds of people, and how people fight back In a word, the problem isn’t neoliberalism—it’s capitalism.” —Ruth Wilson Gilmore, University of Southern California, and author, Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California “Standard accounts of the present crisis blame the excesses of the financial sector, promising that all will be well when the proper financial regulations are in place McNally’s path-breaking account goes far deeper He documents in great detail how the roots of the crisis are found in the systematic failings of capitalism At this moment in world history the case for a radical alternative to the capitalist global order needs to be made as forcefully as possible No one has done this better than McNally.” —Tony Smith, professor of Philosophy, Iowa State University, and author of Globalisation: A Systematic Marxian Account Editor: Sasha Lilley Spectre is a series of penetrating and indispensable works of, and about, radical political economy Spectre lays bare the dark underbelly of politics and economics, publishing outstanding and contrarian perspectives on the maelstrom of capital—and emancipatory alternatives—in crisis The companion Spectre Classics imprint unearths essential works of radical history, political economy, theory and practice, to illuminate the present with brilliant, yet unjustly neglected, ideas from the past Spectre Greg Albo, Sam Gindin, and Leo Panitch, In and Out of Crisis: The Global Financial Meltdown and Left Alternatives David McNally, Global Slump: The Economics and Politics of Crisis and Resistance Sasha Lilley, Capital and Its Discontents: Conversations with Radical Thinkers in a Time of Tumult Spectre Classics E P Thompson, William Morris: Romantic to Revolutionary Global Slump: The Economics and Politics of Crisis and Resistance David McNally Global Slump: The Economics and Politics of Crisis and Resistance David McNally © PM Press 2011 All rights reserved No part of this book may be transmitted by any means without permission in writing from the publisher ISBN: 978-1-60486-332-1 Library of Congress Control Number: 2010927764 Cover by John Yates/Stealworks Interior design by briandesign 10 PM Press PO Box 23912 Oakland, CA 94623 www.pmpress.org Printed in the USA on recycled paper Published in Canada by Fernwood Publishing 32 Oceanvista Lane, Black Point, Nova Scotia, B0J 1B0 and 748 Broadway Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3G 0X3 www.fernwoodpublishing.ca Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication McNally, David Global slump : the economics and politics of crisis and resistance / David McNally Includes bibliographical references ISBN: 978-1-55266-396-7 Global Financial Crisis, 2008–2009 International finance Capitalism I Title HG3881.M39 2010 332'.042 C2010-904888-1 Published in the EU by The Merlin Press Ltd Crane Street Chambers, Crane Street, Pontypool NP4 6ND, Wales www.merlinpress.co.uk ISBN: 978-085036-678-5 For the incredible “Fergallys”— Liam, Sam, Adam, and Sue Contents Preface and Acknowledgements ix introduction The Mutating Crisis of Global Capitalism chapter one The Great Panic of 2008 13 chapter two The Day the Music Died: Three Decades of Neoliberalism 25 chapter three Manic Depression: Capitalism and its Recurring Crises chapter four chapter five chapter six 61 Financial Chaos: Money, Credit, and Instability in Late Capitalism 85 Debt, Discipline, and Dispossession: Race, Class, and the Global Slump 113 Toward a Great Resistance? 146 Conclusion 183 Glossary 195 Notes 197 Index 226 Preface and Acknowledgements As fate would have it, I was in New York for the annual Left Forum in mid-March 2008 when the Wall Street investment bank Bear Stearns melted down “This is big,” I told my partner, as I pored through the financial newspapers trying to get a handle on the dimensions of what was happening “This could be the start of a major crisis,” I speculated In fact, while I was miles ahead of mainstream economists in my understanding—no great claim to fame, as we shall see—I still had only the haziest sense of just how profound an event was unfolding In many respects, this book represents my effort to clarify the nature of the Great Recession, where it came from, and how it is likely to unfold in the years ahead It also represents my attempt to think through what all this means for movements of resistance, struggles for global justice, and anticapitalist politics But this has been no solitary quest At every step of the way, I have been engaged in action and discussion with radical activists and scholars about the issues that are covered here Throughout, I have felt the urgency of making sense of events that are rapidly changing the world in which we live, events that are throwing up huge new challenges to social justice movements everywhere This urgency is driven by the conviction that we need to map the character of the global slump as best we can in order to more adequately fashion our resistance to its devastating effects This book is my small contribution to that cause Whatever its deficiencies, which are surely many, they would be even greater were it not for the feedback, inspiration, and encouragement I received from many quarters I would particularly like to acknowledge the great spirit of nonsectarian radical inquiry that ran through the day schools organized by the Popular Education and Action Project in ix ... Romantic to Revolutionary Global Slump: The Economics and Politics of Crisis and Resistance David McNally Global Slump: The Economics and Politics of Crisis and Resistance David McNally © PM Press 2011... lost their jobs, and many of them their homes Homelessness and hunger soared Unfolding into 2009, the crisis tracked the contours of Great Depression of the 1930s The collapse of world industrial... economies of the Global North.22 All of this speaks of ongoing stagnation, not energetic growth It is these dynamics of the mutating crisis that I hope to capture with the term global slump.” Rather