The growth in the speculative power of finance capital, the magnitude of which dwarfs that of productive capital, has increased enormously over the past 20+ years and undermined the mechanisms that were put in place over the postwar period to prevent a recurrence of the disaster of the speculative '20s followed by the deflationary '30s. For an excellent article on this, see "In Defence of Capital Controls," by James Crotty and Gerald Epstein in the 1996 issue of the Socialist Register. I have no methodology to suggest for such a comparison, but I would love to see a comparison between the relative magnitude of speculative activity in the 1920s compared to its magnitude today. Sid Shniad > D Shniad wrote: > > >You're right, Doug. This task was left to the finance capitalist, whose > >ability to engage in manic speculation has been greatly aided by the > >Pentium. > > Just how has the speculation of the finance capitalist dethroned the > industrial capitalist? How is it different now from, say, 1929, when the > collapse of a speculative structure ushered in a massive debt deflation and > a decade of depression? > > > Doug > > -- > > Doug Henwood > Left Business Observer > 250 W 85 St > New York NY 10024-3217 USA > +1-212-874-4020 voice +1-212-874-3137 fax > email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > web: <http://www.panix.com/~dhenwood/LBO_home.html> > > >
