One World, Ready or Not

1
One World, Ready or Not The Manic Logic of
Global Capitalism
Chapter 3 The Ghost of Marx
William Greider
2
Key Issues

• Conflict over the nature of capitalism
• New fulcrum of todays world economy
• Problem of supply
• Global revolution
• Free-market theory
• Solution of supply problem
• The Keynesian solution

3
Conflict over the nature of capitalism

• The fundamental struggle capital v.s. labor p39
• The inequalities of wealth and power that Marx
  decried are marching wider
• The inequalities of wealth and power p40
• Powerlessness gets expressed in different ways
  (Stephen J. Silva)
• Huligan, kidnapping, looting, job riots

4
New fulcrum of todays world economy

• The shifting of opportunities for wealth and
  incomes p42
• From older and richer societies to the poorer one
• Inequalities between richer and poorer nations
  are reduced
• Self-defensive measures and nationalist solution
  p43
• Stop the reduction of inequalities temporarily
• Cause commerce implodes.
• The only way out of the dilemma p43
• The connection between the first and the last

5
Problem of supply

• Exploration of marketplace p44
• The exploration begins in the marketplace, the
  approach is grounded not in Marx or
  macroeconomics, but in the practical, adventurous
  life of business firms.
• Problem of capitalist enterprise problem of
  supply p44
• the problem of capitalist enterprise is always
  the problem of supply managing the production of
  goods in order to maximize profit and the return
  on invested capital.
• Supply vs. demand p45
• Demand exceeds supply
• Supply exceeds demand

6
Global revolution

• Modernizing process vs. supply problem p46
• companies adopt the technologies that reduce
  costs, result is to enlarge productive capacity.
  They do this to keep up, though it means supply
  surpluses will steadily accumulate
• Strategies respond to revolutionary conditions
  p47
• Continuous suppression of costs, redeploying
  elements of production overseas, reducing the
  fixed costs
• The crisis of the globalization p47
• Enormous supply surpluses are accumulating
  across nearly every major sector of industry,
  world trade continues to expand, as does overall
  economic growth.

7
Free-market theory

• The Economic Orthodoxy p48
• economic orthodoxy teaches that markets always
  come into balance, and it assumed that the
  problem resolves itself naturally by market
  forces
• Two observations p48
• Two observations argues that, once again, the
  widespread faith in self-regulating markets is a
  dangerous illusion
• The visible risk in the future p49
• The wider the gap becomes between productive
  capacity and realistic market demand, the more
  likely it is that the collapse of optimism will
  be sharp and shocking.

8
Solution of supply problem

• A gradualist scenario p49
• The present facts could also support an
  alternative supposition that might be less
  cataclysmic.
• Political intrusion p50
• --Governments will protect markets by limiting
  foreign goods.
• --Companies will form producer cartels to limit
  overall production and divide up sales in the
  global market.
• Hedging strategies p50
• multinational corporations are pursuing what
  might be called hedging strategies, trying to
  deploy elements of production

9
The Keynesian solution

• Government intervention p51
• The other way out of the supply problemis the
  fundamental alternative of addressing the
  inadequate demand through government
  intervention
• Two obstacles p52
• --its political improbability in an era of
  conservative hegemony
• -- the dangerous collision it engenders between
  mass consumption and the natural environment.
• Conclusion p52
• nonethelessthe worlds nations must eventually
  turn to political solutions

10
Question

• In this chapter, Greider lists two ways that the
  people will defend themselves against the market
  forces, governments will protect markets by
  limiting foreign goods, and companies will form
  producer cartels to limit overall production and
  divide up sales in the global market. Is this
  still the case today? And can you name some
  examples about this?

11
Notes

• Bank for International Settlements
• John Ralston Saul
• Peter F. Drucker
• Thorstein Veblen
• The Great Transformation The Political and
  Economic Origins of Our Time