Growth, Stagnation or Collapse: A short comment on Anwar Shaikh’s new book
Here is a quote from Anwar Shaikh in the lecture series based on his new book:
“Capitalism is a growing system. Any analysis of capitalism must build into it from the start that it is growing.”
Shaikh’s statement is really rather incomprehensible given what he says is his starting point for analysis of the capitalist mode of production: the framework provided by classical theorists and Keynes.
How can he claim to base his argument on the classical economists and Keynes when, contrary to both of those schools, he characterizes capitalism as a growing system? In Keynesian theory the system tends toward stagnation; while in classical theory, the mode of production tends toward conditions that must lead to collapse, a falling rate of profit. Read the rest of this entry »