Inbox contradictions
Within minutes of each other this morning, I got two emails on the state of the world economy.
One, from In Defense of Marxism (such is the political scene that even Marxists are on the defensive—doesn’t anyone even dream of revolution anymore?), The Unfolding Capitalist Crisis – a nightmare for workers everywhere. Its nut graf: “[I]n many ways the present crisis is potentially even more serious than that of 1929-33. Its scope is much wider than the thirties and its impact has been far swifter.”
And, from a completely different perspective, this from Wall Street’s favorite economist, Ed Hyman of ISI: “Unprecedented synchronized global upturn…. To an unprecedented extent economies are recovering across the world at the same time.”
Which is it? My guess is somewhere in between. Hyman’s upturn is a bounce off a sharp decline, while Marxists.com’s analysis consists heavily of anxious quotes from bourgeois pundits uttered during that sharp decline, from December 2008 to June 2009. Average the two and you get a long period of a crappy global economy.
LBO News from Doug Henwood 
Seems to me the two dont really contradict one another. Yes, we had a huge financial meltdown, bigger than the thirties in its global scope and in the numbers involved. But the matter was remedied rather quickly, thanks to some politicians being a little less one-track minded than expected (due to, of course, the ever-looming specter of world revolution!).
btw, I was a little disappointed by the helplessness on display toward the end of your interview with Adolph Reed. Diana Johnstone wasn’t quite so fresh out of ideas, or at least rallying points:
“Average the two…” or just draw a damn line from the ’70s.
Try the Kasama Project website for commentary, pretty tolerant and generally intelligent, by some who answer yes to the question “doesn’t anyone even dream of revolution anymore?
I’m not affiliated with the project, and yes they are former RCP, and of course many who visit this website will reject them out of hand, but credit where it’s due.