Re: [Marxism] The end of American capitalism?

["s.artesian" <sartesian@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I`ve been hearing about the end of US capitalism/empire/dollar/hegemony for
the last 8 yrs, about as long as I've been hearing about peak oil, the 
Bolivarian
revolution, the sun rising on the new China, Brazil,  etc etc.

Way past time comrades to stop trying out every different synthetic horse
on the carousel of capitalism.

Some points:

1. Steve is correct; the "real economy" does not exist outside the realm
of finance.  This is, after all,all about exchange and the transformation
of commodities into money-- into THE financial instrument.

2. Likewise, this is not a "financial" crisis. The roots of this are in
profits and their decline; in the restriction on investment after 2001,followed
by a marked increase after 2004, and a peakinfg in the return on investment,
"in the real economy" in 2006. This is overproduction.

3.  Overproduction is not underconsumption and in fact has nothing to
do with consumption.  The MR group has had that wrong since the getgo.

4.  With oil below 80/barrel, does anyone think oil is now less scarce
than 6 months ago?  Does anyone think reserves have dramatically increased?
Price is a SOCIAL product, not a "natural" one.

5.  Increasing class struggle in areas previously thought to have governments
representing "revolutionary" sympathies-- China, Brazil, Bolivia, Venezuela,--
will occur as declining revenues constrain attempts to "sow the petroleum-- or 
commodities, or DFI.



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