Crisis and capital

Abstract

Even if it is admitted that it is unfeasible to try to summarize or even classify the immense – and growing – literature that deals with the economic turbulence of the last eighteen months, it seems possible to identify at least one of the elements that characterizes it in general terms: its emphasis on the dimension financial. It involves, with few exceptions, attributing and circumscribing the causes of this recession to a development with a specific origin: the euphoria – or speculation – in the North American real estate sector associated with the lack of institutional controls that would prevent its spread. Although this approach is understandable in terms
of a theory that aims for uninterrupted growth capitalism, it seems inconsistent with medium and long-term empirical evidence. In other words, with the continuous ups and downs that have characterized practically all capitalist economies up to the present moment.