Kenneth Burke, commenting on the crash of 1929, makes a point similar to Shane's. I can't remember which of Burke's works.
Carrol -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Shane Mage Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2014 11:22 AM To: Progressive Economics Cc: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition Subject: Re: [Pen-l] Who Goes to Jail? Matt Taibbi on American Injustice Gap from Wall Street to Main Street | Democracy Now! On Apr 16, 2014, at 11:13 AM, Louis Proyect wrote: MATT TAIBBI: ...Fast-forward again to the next big crisis...it wiped out 40 percent of the world's wealth... What unspeakable bullshit! This guy thinks that the market value of "financial instruments" (what Marx called "fictitious capital") constitutes "the world's wealth!" So now that the market value of that fictitious capital is back around where it was in 2008, he presumably is thankful to Obama, Bernanke, Draghi & Co. for having so brilliantly increased the "world's wealth" by two-thirds in a mere five years. What would it take to make such a type realize that the world's wealth is wiped out even faster during prosperity (through uninhibited resource extraction and environmental degradation) than during a crisis that inhibits economic "growth?" Shane Mage This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire, kindling in measures and going out in measures. Herakleitos of Ephesos _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
