by Charlie Post
April 11, 2012
For the Solidarity Midwest Regional Crisis School, Charlie Post delivered a talk explaining the political economy of the crisis, or why austerity is rational from the point of view of capital. In contrast to Keynesian explanations of the crisis (a la Paul Krugman), Charlie suggests that you can’t simply stimulate demand to get out of the crisis because the source of the problem is a falling rate of profit rather than low demand.
For more on the subject, see Charlie’s other articles Exploring the Roots of the Crisis and a Review of David McNally’s Global Slump.