William Robinson (UCSB): The Crisis of Global Capitalism: Cyclical, Structural, or Systemic? John Mixon (Houston): Neoclassical Economics and the Erosion of Middle-Class Values: An Explanation for Economic Collapse. From Monthly Review, Robert Pollin on the Wall Street collapse and return of reality-based economics. From The Economist, a series of experts answer the question: "How have the financial crisis and recession affected the way economics is taught, and how should economic instruction change?" A review of Epic Recession: Prelude to Global Depression by Jack Rasmus. The crisis, 3 years and counting: The current economic recession emerged as the overarching contradiction that is influencing the development of the other social contradictions currently inherent in most capitalist societies. When financial and economic systems fail, trust in the state and its institutions pays the price; after the economic crisis and its exposure of the irresponsibility of global capitalism, the first step to restoring social trust is understanding what went wrong. If a pure market economy is so good, why doesn't it exist? Books published by university presses often signal trends, and this season a cluster of fascinating titles examine our collective hallucination about the so-called free market system. The one thing that a thousand books written from within the financial crisis won't contemplate is the possibility of an unhappy ending for capitalism. A review of 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism by Ha-Joon Chang (and more and more and more).
