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Verso Second Slump
This book explores feline behavior and habits.
224 pages, Hardcover
Published August 31, 1987
19 people want to read
About the author
Ernest Mandel
227 books119 followersErnest Ezra Mandel was a German born Belgian-Jewish Marxian economist and a Trotskyist activist and theorist. He fought in the underground resistance against the Nazis during the occupation of Belgium and he became a member of the Fourth International during his youth in Antwerp. Mandel is considered to be populariser of marxism.
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July 24, 2025
"Only the Marxist explanation for the fall in the rate of profit [...] can solidly ground the resistance of the unions and the workers to the guilt projecting ideological offensive of the bourgeoisie[...]" (196);
Mandel offers a Marxian analysis of the 1970s economic slump arguing that the cause of the slump was due mostly to overproduction.
He also explores how the global division of labour and the state's monetary policy worsened the slump. However, despite this being an ostensibly 'Marxist' text, we get very little in the way of deep analysis of the working class in the western economies where the slump hit hardest.
Furthermore, I feel that Mandel's excessively productionist account of the crisis leads to an understating of trade union pressure, and an overstating of the impact production at the expense of demand. In defending the unions' demands, he seems to forget that their pressure on wages may have impacted the profitability of the firms they were demanding wage increases from.
Also, the economy in the 1970s was fundamentally changing, but Mandel appears too self-assured to see it. Reading in 2023, we have the benefit of retrospect, but Mandel didn't, so we mustn't be unfair. However, this points to a serious flaw in Mandel's economics and his ability to analyse the dynamics of the capitalist system.
Mandel offers a Marxian analysis of the 1970s economic slump arguing that the cause of the slump was due mostly to overproduction.
He also explores how the global division of labour and the state's monetary policy worsened the slump. However, despite this being an ostensibly 'Marxist' text, we get very little in the way of deep analysis of the working class in the western economies where the slump hit hardest.
Furthermore, I feel that Mandel's excessively productionist account of the crisis leads to an understating of trade union pressure, and an overstating of the impact production at the expense of demand. In defending the unions' demands, he seems to forget that their pressure on wages may have impacted the profitability of the firms they were demanding wage increases from.
Also, the economy in the 1970s was fundamentally changing, but Mandel appears too self-assured to see it. Reading in 2023, we have the benefit of retrospect, but Mandel didn't, so we mustn't be unfair. However, this points to a serious flaw in Mandel's economics and his ability to analyse the dynamics of the capitalist system.
Displaying 1 of 1 review