ABSTRACT
From the neoconservative far right to the far left we have been deluged by writings about the “crisis of global capitalism.” While these writings, according to the ideological predispositions of their authors, differ as to the causes, consequences, prognosis and cures, there is a virtual consensus that “the crisis” threatens to put an end to capitalism as we know it-certainly in its neoliberal form. And there is no doubt that for a short period, from 2008 to 2009, the capitalist system in Europe and the United States suffered a shock that shook the system to its foundations, threatening the functioning and the stability of key financial institutions as well as the capitalist development of economies at the center of the system. However, as is the norm for capitalism, the crisis merely served to restructure the system, to shake out its underperforming and weaker agents and destroy capital in the process but at the same time regenerating conditions for a new round of capital accumulation. As it turned out finance capital, the major force behind and the principal detonator of the financial meltdown and its repercussions, recovered from its losses-over $4 trillion according to the IMF (Landler, 2009)1-and the capitalist class in its financial core was strengthened, to no small extent by the bailout of the banks and other financial institutions owned by elite members of this class. With this bailout, which the IMF estimated would require at least $1.1 trillion of public funds-in fact well over $3 trillion-combined with the magic of the market in restoring the value of the elite’s financial assets, the tiny group of billionaires at the apex of this elite (some 1,200), not only recovered the pre-crisis value of its financial assets, but it is estimated that their fortunes had increased by at least 25 percent and as much as 37 percent.2 In addition-and more importantly-the political,
social, ideological conditions of “the crisis” served to consolidate the dominance of capital over labor, converting a crisis of capital into a crisis for labor (and to some extent a crisis in the functioning of the state).3
