[Marxism] A different take on economic crisis

[Ed George]

The US sub-prime mortgage crisis and credit crunch, and the resultant
US slowdown and potential recession, has acutely posed the nature of
the current period. Over the last 12 months, the IMF has raised its
estimate of financial losses from approximately $50 billion in the
summer of 2007, to $945 billion in April 2008. US growth is expected
to hover around 0% for at least the first half of 2008 and the
knock-on effects on the world economy have still to unravel.

As a result certain Marxists, including Peter Taaffe, Lynn Walsh,
Robert Brenner - and now Hillel Ticktin in the Weekly Worker - have
asserted that this is the deepest crisis that capitalism has faced in
decades, one that poses the potential possibility of a repeat of the
1930s great depression. Ticktin says: "The question at the moment is
not really whether there is a downturn. It is clear that is the case.
The question is whether there is a depression - and I think there is."
And he adds, apocalyptically, that the "system itself could
disintegrate".

Full: <http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/717/financial.html>