<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:st1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 11 (filtered medium)">
<!--[if !mso]>
<style>
v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
</style>
<![endif]--><o:SmartTagType
namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="place"/>
<!--[if !mso]>
<style>
st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) }
</style>
<![endif]-->
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Tahoma;
panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0cm;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
p
{mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0cm;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0cm;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
span.StileMessaggioDiPostaElettronica17
{mso-style-type:personal-reply;
font-family:Arial;
color:navy;}
@page Section1
{size:595.3pt 841.9pt;
margin:70.85pt 2.0cm 2.0cm 2.0cm;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body bgcolor=white lang=IT link=blue vlink=blue>
<div class=Section1>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt'>With
a bit of delay, here is the second instalment of my analysis<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt'>of
the current crisis from the point of view of 'the ethical economy’<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>I. First Idea Our crisis is a crisis of transition. </span></font></b><span
lang=EN-GB><br>
The present financial crisis is not the first to hit us. Rather, the period of
relative financial calm that marked the persistence of the Bretton Woods accord
(1947-1971) has been succeeded by a series of financial boom and bust cycles,
the stock market in the 1980s, the dot.com boom in the 1990s and now the
sub-prime/real estate bubble. The reasons behind this recent volatility are
many ad interconnected in complex ways. First, the collapse of the
Bretton Woods system itself created higher levels of volatility (in particular
in currency markets) and greater scope for speculation. Second, the
computerization, networking and technological refinement of financial markets
have vastly increased their speed and scope. Third, deregulation and other
policy decisions has further accelerated the process (like Margaret Thatcher's
decision to systematically transform the British economy from one centred on
industry to one centred on finance and corporate services).<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt'>However,
at the heart of the expansion of financial markets and, as a consequence, of
financial speculation, there has been a constant and growing over-supply of
capital, driven by a persistent decline in the rates of profit of virtually all
non-financial sectors of the US economy. This tendency has accelerated in
the 1990s . Tendencies are the same for Western Europe and, not least, <st1:country-region u2:st="on"><st1:place u2:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">China</st1:place></st1:country-region></st1:place></st1:country-region>.
The result is that capital finds declining opportunities for profitable
investments in the productive economy, and tends to migrate to financial
markets where gains can be much higher, at least in the short run. Again this
has been particularly true for <st1:country-region u2:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on">China</st1:country-region></st1:country-region> where industrial
profits and private savings have been massively channelled into the <st1:country-region u2:st="on"><st1:place u2:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region></st1:place></st1:country-region>
economy (partly for geopolitical reasons), where they have fuelled the recent
waves of debt-driven private and public consumer bonanza. The flight of capital
away from the productive economy and into the financial economy is a
manifestation of the inability of the present economic regime to put the wealth
it produces to productive use. This is an important point. It is not that there
are no more needs to be met in the world. It is simply that the prevailing
techno-political paradigm is unable to open up the markets by means of which
capital could be productively deployed in meeting such needs. Although there
are a number of attempts in this direction, like venture capital investing in
alternative energy systems, or companies cultivating the 'bottom of the
pyramid’, the market of the global poor, these are the isolated results
of mostly private enterprise, and not the coordinated outcome of systemic
initiatives. Such a co-existence of unmet needs and excess capital, and the
financial expansion that results from this combination is a classic symptom of
the immanent transition form one system to another. Similar things have
happened before, for example in the financial boom of the 1920s that marked the
transition from a 19th century English-style industrial capitalism to an
American-style consumer capitalism. Then the resolution of the crisis consisted
in a series of systemic measures- the New Deal and resulting welfare systems-
that not only managed to realize a more democratic mass consumer society thus
opening up a range of new markets where capital could be deployed to meet hitherto
unmet needs and desires, but de facto institutionalized a new, Fordist,
paradigm of capitalist development. Indeed in his masterful history of
the 'long twentieth century' Giovanni Arrighi argues that periods of
financialization of the economy, like ours, usually constitute the last phase
of a ‘systemic cycle of accumulation’ and signal the emergence of
another one.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
reason behind the declining profitability of investment in the productive
economy is the growing productivity of labour across most sectors of the
economy (excluding some kinds of personal services). In part, this growing
productivity depends on what Marxists call the rising 'organic composition of
capital', that is, the rate of machines and other 'stuff' to workers. In
particular robots and information technology has rendered workers in factories
and offices immensely more productive, drastically reducing the time needed to
produce stuff or do things. The result is a supply of 'more stuff' and
declining prices, which reduces levels of profits. However, the rising organic
composition of capital is per se not the only factor behind the recent profit
squeeze (after all this has been going on for a long time). Rather, the rising
‘organic composition of capital’ has also caused the
emergence of a new mode of production within the capitalist economy itself.
This new mode of production has a shadowy presence on the balance sheets of
companies, where it figures as what is known as 'intangible assets'.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt'>Links
to full text at <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt'><a
href="http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/crisis-and-the-the-ethical-economy-ii/2009/09/14">http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/crisis-and-the-the-ethical-economy-ii/2009/09/14</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Adam Arvidsson</span></font><font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Associate Professor</span></font><font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Dipartimento di Studi Sociali e Politici</span></font><font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Università di Milano</span></font><font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>via Conservatorio 7</span></font><font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>20122 Milano, Italy</span></font><font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>+39.02.503.21209</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>
<hr size=2 width="100%" align=center tabindex=-1>
</span></font></div>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>Da:</span></font></b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>
idc-bounces@mailman.thing.net [mailto:idc-bounces@mailman.thing.net] <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>Per conto di </span></b>Marta Roldan<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Inviato:</span></b> venerdì 11 settembre 2009
22.41<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>A:</span></b> idc@mailman.thing.net<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Oggetto:</span></b> [iDC] Looking for
colleagues working on the same or related subjects</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Hi, I am looking for colleagues interested in studying
"creative" labour, work organization, <br>
capital accumulation, and development from a critical perspective, among
related issues. I have been carrying out research bearing on this
interdisciplinary subject in Argentina mainly (Editorial and now the TV
industry, content production, network projects, workers' subjectivity, etc.) </span></font>.<font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>We are now
discussing a new law on audiovisual communication that will, hopefully,
be approved by Congress about the end of this month and that might change the
"business model" now in practice</span></font>. <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>I am a senior researcher of CONICET, the National Council of
Scientific and Technical Research of Argentina with institutional site in
FLACSO (The Latin America Faculty of Social Sciences in Buenos Aires). Thank
you for your interest.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Martha Roldán <a href="mailto:imartharoldan@arnet.com.ar">imartharoldan@arnet.com.ar</a></span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>