Confronting Mainstream Economics for Overcoming Capitalism

ISBN-13: 9783031058530 / Angielski / Miękka / 2023

Rémy Herrera

Opis

This book provides analytical arguments that demonstrate the necessity to go beyond not only mainstream economics but also, and especially, the capitalist economy itself. It provides a radical critique of mainstream economics, comparing it to an unscientific form of single thought, and applies this criticism to the specific fields of growth, development, the institutions, defense, or the environment. It targets both neoclassical economics and reformist “soft heterodox” currents, from neoinstitutionalists to neo-Keynesians—including Thomas Piketty or Amartya Sen, among others. In doing so, it rejects Keynes’ theories of money, the crisis, and the state. It then offers a Marxist interpretation of the current crisis of capitalism, considering it as a systemic crisis without solutions internal to its own logic and dynamics, and emphasizes the links between this capitalist crisis and imperialist wars, and the destruction of the environment and natural resources by capital. The book concludes by arguing that we must find the necessary theoretical and practical alternatives in a Marxist perspective, advocating for socialist transitions away from the capitalist economy to protect humanity and the environment.

Spis treści

Introduction. 

Part I. Toward a Radical Criticism of Mainstream Economics

1. On Ideology: Is There a Single Thought in Economics?

2. Growth: A Mainstream Theory (Which is Also Itself) in Crisis

3. Development: Theoretical Rebirth...or Smiling Recolonization?

Part II. The Limitations of the "Soft Heterodoxies" in Economics 

4. Markets and Institutions: Economics and the Rough Understanding of Organizations

5. Some Serious Limits of John Maynard Keynes on Money, the Crisis, and the State

6. Thomas Piketty's Regulation of Capitalism Through a "Tax Revolution"

Part III. Towards a Marxist Analysis of Contemporary Capitalism

7. From the Domination of High Finance to the Systemic Crisis of Capital: A Marxist Interpretation

8. For a Political Economy of Defense: Imperialist Wars and their Links to the Crisis of Capital

9. Overcoming Capitalism to Protect Humanity and the Environment: Revitalizing Marxism for Modern Socialist Transitions

O autorze

Rémy Herrera is an economist and researcher at the CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research) and teaches Ph.D. students in Economics at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France.

Blurb

This book provides analytical arguments that demonstrate the necessity to go beyond not only mainstream economics but also, and especially, the capitalist economy itself. It provides a radical critique of mainstream economics, comparing it to an unscientific form of single thought, and applies this criticism to the specific fields of growth, development, the institutions, defense, or the environment. It targets both neoclassical economics and reformist “soft heterodox” currents, from neoinstitutionalists to neo-Keynesians—including Thomas Piketty or Amartya Sen, among others. In doing so, it rejects Keynes’ theories of money, the crisis, and the state. It then offers a Marxist interpretation of the current crisis of capitalism, considering it as a systemic crisis without solutions internal to its own logic and dynamics, and emphasizes the links between this capitalist crisis and imperialist wars, and the destruction of the environment and natural resources by capital. The book concludes by arguing that we must find the necessary theoretical and practical alternatives in a Marxist perspective, advocating for socialist transitions away from the capitalist economy to protect humanity and the environment.

Rémy Herrera is an economist and researcher at the CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research) and teaches Ph.D. students in Economics at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France.