Excerpt: /378/ Reading Club: Globalisation (II)

On Giovanni Arrighi's Adam Smith in Beijing: Lineages of the 21st Century

 

[Patreon Tier II & III Exclusive]

 

We discuss the Part 2 of this landmark book from 2008, debating theories of Western economic decline: Robert Brenner's, and Arrighi's critique of it.

 

Points discussed:

• Are you 'Team Brenner' or 'Team Arrighi'?
• Was neoliberalism a counter-revolution? A passive revolution? A restoration?
• How does the depression of the 1870s compare to that of the 1970s or the post-2008 period?
• What are the characteristics of our own Belle Époque (1993-2007)
• What matters more in explaining the downturn: inter-capitalist global competition? Upward wage pressure? The role of the global South?

Links:

• Adam Smith in Beijing: Lineages of the 21st Century, Giovanni Arrighi, Verso (2008)