>>WL: CB . . . repeatedly and directly . . . in his line of arguing the existence of industrial capital and Lenin's "Imperialism." And in statement that American society is not qualitatively different from feudal Russia. Russia was after all basically feudal in its economic and social structures when Lenin died. America was qualitatively different from Russia when Lenin was alive. <<
More importantly Lenin was referring to the national and international capitalism of his day, not just Russia emerging from a feudal empire. Of course he addressed speculation, but of course he addressed it in a world where there was no 24-7 electronic frenzy to worldwide trading across linked markets (although don't count that out completely because of the telegraph). Forgive us, though, if some of us inherently trust the analysis of Lenin more than we do a guy in charge of an investment fund in NYC (who may well write apocalyptic rhetoric about speculative finance simply because he is ocean deep in the bearest of all bear bets). >>Some of the discussion is sectarian on both sides but not the majority of it. I think. The matter of who rules today is going to be important with Obama coming into office. One cannot push him to the left.<< Well if he could be pushed to the left he would snap in the wind. The only place this man has to go is into a S. Asian quagmire (can't wait for the Pashtun to attack the first convoy of Bradley vehicles leaving Pakistan) to match the Mesopotamian quagmire (surely the most successful occupation ever in terms of the sheer deficit spending on a handful of contractors and their myriad camp following sub-contractors). And a capitalist and ruling class crisis that makes the US of 2008 look like a combination of the British Empire in 1918, B.E. in 1945 and the US in 1929 and I don't know freaking what!--and that doesn't do it justice!!! >>He is finance capital representative left to tap dance between the whims of >>productive and non-productive capital.<< Why do I like the term 'production capital' better? Where in Das Kapital does Marx use that term 'productive capital' or am I simply misremembering the term and there is a distinction between productive capital and production capital? Of course the capitalist who has none of Marx in the first place would say my money is my money, and I want this money to PRODUCE more money anyway it can (which is why we get blackbox monsters of the stock market like Enron, World Crossing, Tyco, Citigroup, AIG, etc--much of the accounting for which is still set up for industrial capitalists trying to pay fewer taxes--so they have enough money to pay state-level politicians). >> Get ready for advocacy of the anti-monopoly coalition. It is the Democratic party that has to be isolated and their grip over the workers broken. Obama has already had his day in the sun by being elected. Give it six months. << Are you being ironic about the 'anti-monopoly coalition' (just thinking of Lenin again)? Or did you mean some kind of political monopoly (the Repugs and the Demoncrats). The Democratic Party I would say doesn't have a grip on the workers--that is why Repugnicans win so many elections. It isn't even going to take six months for the so-called markets to realize that after another trillion outlay from the federal government, Pres. Obama and all his Clintonite friends haven't got a clue as to what they are doing. CJ _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
