March 18, 2013

Death of the Merchant Class

David Priestland, The Chronicle of Higher Education

AP Photo

As we struggle to emerge from the 2008 financial crisis, we may now have enough distance to understand its real significance. Immediate judgments were often very flawed. For example, then-president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, brandished a copy of Das Kapital before the press to show his deep, structural understanding of the catastrophic events in the international markets. The implied message: Capitalism is doomed, as anyone can see. But there was no Marxist revival, and capitalism has not collapsed. Indeed, in the global East it is positively flourishing. Capitalism seems to have an assured future, at least in the medium term.

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TAGGED: global economy

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