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Andrew Kliman, "Worse Than They Want You to Think: A Marxian Analysis of the Economic Crisis"

"Worse than They Want You to Think: A Marxist Analysis of the Economic Crisis" A Talk by Andrew Kliman

The New SPACE (The New School for Pluralistic Anti-Capitalist Education) Tuesday, October 21 at 7:00 p.m.

In their haste to promote redistributive policies and demonize the greed and corruption of Wall Street––and in their desire to avoid advocating a liberatory alternative to capitalism––liberals and leftists have sought to downplay the severity of the current economic crisis. In contrast, Kliman will argue that the crisis is every bit as serious and acute as the fear-mongering financial analysts and officials at the Treasury and Federal Reserve say it is. If the $800 billion rescue plan does not quickly restore lenders’ confidence in the system, the flow of credit may stop, causing the real economy, in the U.S. and abroad, to seize up. Income redistribution, infrastructure investment, financial regulation, and legal protections against foreclosures are not alternatives to the Wall Street bailout. The only alternative is a new, human, socio-economic system.

Kliman will draw on Karl Marx’s value theory in order to explain how the crisis results from the weakness of the U.S. economy since the collapse of the dot-com bubble. He will also draw on Raya Dunayevskaya’s theory of state-capitalism in order to explain why supposedly “free-market” policymakers and economists are ushering in a new period of statified property and state control of the economy.

Andrew Kliman, professor of economics at Pace University, is the author of Reclaiming Marx's "Capital": A Refutation of the Myth of Inconsistency and a member of the New SPACE Organizing Committee. He has written two essays on the current economic crisis, "Trying to Save Capitalism from Itself" (April 25, marxisthumanismtoday.org) and “A Crisis of Confidence" (Aug. 23, International Socialism journal, Issue no. 120, www.isj.org.uk).

$7 - $10, Suggested Donation

This talk will be held at TRS Inc. Professional Suite. Located at 44 East 32nd Street, 11th floor (between Park & Madison Ave).

The New SPACE (The New School for Pluralistic Anti-Capitalist Education) http://new-space.mahost.org/ new-space@mutualaid.org Tel: 1 (800) 377-6183