Marx's Crises Theory: Scarcity, Labor, and Finance

by Michael Perelman

The history of capitalism has long been thought to be a sequence of recurring crises that appear in various crises in employing people, crises in obtaining resources, and financial crises. Marx's Crises Scarcity, Labor, and Finance provides a framework for interpreting Marx's theory of crises. In conclusion, the author asserts that as long as the financial structure leads to periodic breakdowns, Marx's writings on the subject will retain their importance as a source of theory and analysis of the dynamics of political economy.

Genres: Economics

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Michael Perelman (born October 1, 1939) is an American economist and economic historian, currently professor of economics at California State University, Chico. Perelman has written 19 books, including Railroading Economics, Manufacturing Discontent, The Perverse Economy, and The Invention of Capitalism. A student of economics at the University of Michigan and San Francisco State College, Perelman earned a Ph.D in agricultural economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1971, under supervision of George Kuznets. Perelman writes that he was drawn away from the "framework of conventional economics," noticing that the agricultural system was "consuming ten times more energy than it was producing in the form of edible food." Perelman's research into how "profit-oriented agricultural system created hunger, pollution, serious public health consequences, and environmental disruption, while throwing millions of people off the land" led to his first book, Farming for Profit in a Hungry World (1977). Perelman continued to write extensively in criticism of conventional or mainstream economics, including in all his books (and especially his books published from 2000 to date), papers and interviews.

Although perceiving flaws in Marx's work as it is typically interpreted in the context of its modern reading, Perelman writes that "Marx’s crisis theory was far more sophisticated than many modern readers had realized," focusing on an interpretation that is largely bypassed by many readers of Marxian economic thought. Perelman views Marxist theory as vindicated through its account of crises that a capitalist economy must inherently generate.

Perelman has appeared on a number of programs, including Media Matters, Pacifica Radio, KPFA 94.1 Berkeley, and WBBR (Bloomberg Radio).