ABSTRACT
This chapter considers a few of the all-too-few moments in bourgeois economic thought when the conventional belief in capitalism's limitless growth faltered. It explores the language of reproduction and generationality in somewhat more depth. The chapter argues that by tracking a relationship between this language and the contemporary crisis of reproduction, the author is able to draw a connection between the ideological mystifications of economic orthodoxy and the challenges of Marxist-feminist materialism. The Economist, Wall Street Journal, and Time all covered secular stagnation, while Ben Bernanke debated it with Summers, and Paul Krugman grumped that he had been saying the same thing for a while. A specter is haunting mainstream economics—the specter of secular stagnation. In 2013, former Treasury Secretary and current hedge fund managing partner Larry Summers gave a speech at the IMF in which he began by congratulating his colleagues on the "great achievement" of resolving the financial crisis of 2008.
