Crisis and the Poverty of Nations: Two Market Products Which Value Explains Better

This article appeared as ‘Crisis and the Poverty of Nations: Two Market Products Which Value Explains Better’, Symposium on Robert Brenner and the World Crisis, Historical Materialism No.5, Winter 1999, pp 29-77. London: LSE. ISSN 0 9532171 4 0 The original can be referenced at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/hm/1999/00000005/00000001;jsessionid=3ov2260kgo9po.henrietta The article demonstrates using empirical data, that the concept of value is required to understand three phenomena, produced by the market, which call its own existence into question. *(crisis – a sharp and well-defined interruption in growth, accompanied by a fall in money profits, a rise in unemployment, and a sudden fall in asset prices – every 7-12 years; *general crisis – prolonged 20-40 year phases of relatively slow growth, accompanied by a declining average profit rate, permanent unemployment, economic turbulence and political instability (including war, racism, and rising barbarism) alternating with 15-30 year phases of stable rapid growth. *long term growth in inequality between nations. The gap between rich and poor countries has grown for a hundred and fifty years almost without remission, accelerating sharply since 1981 at the onset of ‘globalisation’ – the re-construction of a unified world market.