How capitalists learned to stop worrying and love the crisis.pdfVIP

real-world economics review, issue no. 66 subscribe for free How capitalists learned to stop worrying and love the crisis Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan 1 [Israel and York University, Canada] Copyright: Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan, 2014 You may post comments on this paper at /comments-on-rwer-issue-no-66/ Economic, financial and social commentators from all directions and of all persuasions are obsessed with the prospect of recovery. The world remains mired in a deep, prolonged crisis, and the key question seems to be how to get out of it. There is, however, a prior question that few if any bother to ask: Do capitalists want a recovery in the first place? Can they afford it? On the face of it, the question sounds silly: of course capitalists want a recovery; how else can they prosper? According to the textbooks, both mainstream and heterodox, capital accumulation and economic growth are two sides of the same process. Accumulation generates growth and growth fuels accumulation, so it seems bootless to ask whether capitalists want growth. Growth is their lifeline, and the more of it, the better it is. Or is it? Accumulation of what? The answer depends on what we mean by capital accumulation. The common view of this process is deeply utilitarian. Capitalists, we are told, seek to maximize their so-called ‘real wealth’: they try to accumulate as many machines, structures, inventories and intellectual property rig