The Enigma of Capital

Below is footage of a recent lecture by the eminent geographer, critic and Marxist scholar David Harvey which too place April 26, 2010 in the Department of Geography at the London School of Economics. Here Harvey patiently outlines the inherent contradictions, flows and monstrosities of capital and profit based economics, global finance systems and the culture of plunder in which we are complicit - and from which our global elites derive their enormous power.

It is well worth the time watching one of the most cogent and relevant thinkers of our time talk about the deep roots of the current economic crisis:

Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 |  
Video by fourmanfilms.

Harvey’s latest book, The Enigma of Capital: And the Crises of Capitalism was published last just last week. You can buy it at Amazon.com: here

Here’s the blurb (remixed by me) from the publisher:

For three centuries the capitalist system has shaped western society, informed its rulers, and conditioned the lives of its people. Using his unrivalled knowledge of the subject, David Harvey lays bare the follies of the international financial system, looking closely at the nature of capitalism, how it works and why sometimes it doesn’t.

Taking a long view of the current economic crisis, Harvey explains how capitalism came to dominate the world and why it resulted in the current financial crisis. He examines the vast flows of money that surge round the world in daily volumes well in excess of the sum of all its economies. He looks at the cycles of boom and bust in the world’s housing and stock markets and shows that periodic episodes of meltdown are not only inevitable in the capitalist system but essential to its survival. The essence of capitalism is its amorality and lawlessness and to talk of a regulated, ethical capitalism is to make a fundamental error.

The Enigma of Capitalism considers how crises of the current sort can best be contained within the constraints of capitalism, and makes the case for a social order that would allow us to live within a system that really could be responsible, just, and humane.

Post-Marxist thought must be considered a crucial tool for developing relevant horizons of thought – as the fundamental crisis at the heart of exploitative economics continues to destabilize existent ecologies and social orders during the next decade or so. The spectre of Marx indeed looms large.

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