David North, the national chairman of the Socialist Equality Party (US), spoke last week at San Diego State University (March 19) and University of California, Berkeley (March 22) on “The Capitalist Crisis and the Return of History.” We publish here the notes upon which his lectures were based.
The massive Fed intervention into financial markets since March has taken to ever greater levels the parasitism that forms the modus operandi of the US economy.
Over the past 12 years, since the financial crisis of 2008, the state has provided trillions of dollars to the banks, hedge funds and corporations, shattering the nostrums of “free market” capitalism.
No matter how much it seems that “value” can simply be created out of thin air, the gargantuan mass of fictitious capital and debt ultimately rests on the surplus value obtained from the exploitation of the working class.
The year 2018—the bicentenary of Marx’s birth—will be characterized, above all, by an immense intensification of social tensions and an escalation of class conflict around the world.
The effect of the changes is to assure the financial oligarchy that the ultra-low interest rate regime, so essential to its wealth accumulation, will continue indefinitely.
We are publishing the speech introducing the resolution “War, the class struggle and the tasks of the Socialist Equality Party” at the Seventh National Congress of the SEP (UK) given by Tom Scripps, its assistant national secretary. The resolution was passed unanimously. Scripps was re-elected to his position by the Congress.
Dollar supremacy is a decisive issue for the entire political establishment of US imperialism as it seeks to maintain its global hegemony through an ever-expanding war front.
The Bank for International Settlements annual review said central banks had to be alert to the dangers of inflation and not hesitate to raise interest rates again if necessary.
The decision raises the prospect of turmoil in international currency markets where the Japanese yen has been falling and hit its lowest rate against the dollar in 34 years on Monday.
Apart from the US, where there are mounting concerns over the levels of government debt, major industrial countries are in grip of a marked economic slowdown.
Nvidia, which two years ago made most of its money from selling graphics cards for computer games, has now become the world’s third largest company by market value.
The lecture will explain the basic conceptions and principles elaborated in the Communist Manifesto. We invite students, workers and academics to attend and participate in this critical discussion.
•International Youth and Students for Social Equality (Sri Lanka)
The World Economic Forum annual report said “governance systems” were being “stretched beyond their limits” and “severe perceived risks” to economies and societies “will become harder to handle as global cooperation erodes.”
In contrast to the “pivot” on interest rates by the Fed, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England have insisted they are sticking to the previous course.
Rapid moves could trigger problems in what is already a fragile Treasury market that has become increasingly unpredictable because of hedge funds making big bets with large amounts of borrowed money.
The Bank for International Settlements has said in its quarterly review that “speculation is back,” based on massive leverage with the potential to set off a crisis.
In her press conference, ECB president Christine Lagarde described the economy as slow and sluggish with estimates by officials putting growth at only 0.7 percent for 2023, 1.0 percent in 2024, rising to 1.5 percent in 2025.
The Financial Stability Board has warned that the global economic recovery is losing strength and the effects of rising interest rates are increasingly being felt.