摘要
Since the Great Depression in 1929,economists have continued soul-searching for the lessons to be drawn from the crisis.But mainstream reflections have been misguided,conf ined to stereotypical targets of blame such as "lax regulation," "policy mistakes" and "underestimation of risks." Regretfully,understanding of the root cause of the current sub-prime crisis is as superficial as before.The reasons for both crises seem to be polar opposites:the Great Depression of 1929 was triggered by insufficient effective demand,while the ongoing sub-prime mortgage crisis was triggered by "excess" effective demand.In fact,however,the classic crisis and the modern crisis in the capitalist world essentially originate from the same thing:crisis of overproduction.The shift from classic crisis into modern crisis only kicks the ball from supply side to demand side.Given the intrinsic contradictions of the market economy that give rise to the crisis,the analytical framework of "risk and regulation" proves difficult to help us understand its nature.For this reason,we must turn to a Marxist questioning of the crisis.
Since the Great Depression in 1929,economists have continued soul-searching for the lessons to be drawn from the crisis.But mainstream reflections have been misguided,conf ined to stereotypical targets of blame such as "lax regulation," "policy mistakes" and "underestimation of risks." Regretfully,understanding of the root cause of the current sub-prime crisis is as superficial as before.The reasons for both crises seem to be polar opposites:the Great Depression of 1929 was triggered by insufficient effective demand,while the ongoing sub-prime mortgage crisis was triggered by "excess" effective demand.In fact,however,the classic crisis and the modern crisis in the capitalist world essentially originate from the same thing:crisis of overproduction.The shift from classic crisis into modern crisis only kicks the ball from supply side to demand side.Given the intrinsic contradictions of the market economy that give rise to the crisis,the analytical framework of "risk and regulation" proves difficult to help us understand its nature.For this reason,we must turn to a Marxist questioning of the crisis.
