Krizi Anlarken

Year 2009, Volume: 1 Issue: 20, 29 - 44, 01.01.2009

E. Ahmet Tonak

Abstract

How We Understand the Crisis

Abstract

Among mainstream academics, the current world economic crisis is commonly explained either as a failure of policy e.g. deregulation of the financial sector or as an expression of human greed e.g. the case of Bernie Madoff . Though most radical economists reject this view, for their part, they commonly analyze the recent slump by vague references, mostly to over-accumulation and/or occasionally to the falling rate of profit. This essay is an attempt to clarify the problematic aspects in the latter type of radical views. It does this in two parts. First, on the basis of Marx’s distinction between productive value creation and unproductive activities value absorption , the constraints imposed by “real” sectors on financial sectors are explained. Second, through a series of empirical estimates, the vital significance of the Marxian macroeconomic accounting system for evaluating any capitalist economy is reasserted. The last section of the essay speculates on the possible manner of unfolding of the crisis in the near future.

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