Costas Lapavitsas

Based on a wealth of empirical data, this timely resource discusses the innovative concept of financialization, defining it in terms of the fundamental conduct of non-financial enterprises, banks and households and discussing it's upsides and downsides. Original.

How Finance Exploits Us All

Profiting Without Producing

First, there was the credit crunch, and governments around the world stepped in to bail out the banks. The sequel to that debacle is the sovereign debt crisis, which has hit the eurozone hard. The hour has come to pay the piper, and ordinary citizens across Europe are growing to realize that socialism for the wealthy means punching a few new holes in their already-tightened belts. Building on his work as a leading member of the renowned Research on Money and Finance group, Costas Lapavitsas argues that European austerity is counterproductive. Cutbacks in public spending will mean a longer, deeper recession, worsen the burden of debt, further imperil banks, and may soon spell the end of monetary union itself. Crisis in the Eurozone charts a cautious path between political economy and radical economics to envisage a restructuring reliant on the forces of organized labour and civil society. The clear-headed rationalism at the heart of this book conveys a controversial message, unwelcome in many quarters but soon to be echoed across the continent: impoverished states have to quit the euro and cut their losses or worse hardship will ensue.

Crisis in the Eurozone

Many on the Left see the European Union as a fundamentally benign project with the potential to underpin ever greater cooperation and progress. If it has drifted rightward, the answer is to fight for reform from within. In this iconoclastic polemic, economist Costas Lapavitsas demolishes this view. He contends that the EU’s response to the Eurozone crisis represents the ultimate transformation of the union into a neoliberal citadel that institutionally embeds austerity, privatization, and wage cuts. Concurrently, the rise of German hegemony has divided the EU into an unstable core and dependent peripheries. These related developments make the EU impervious to meaningful reform. The solution is therefore a direct challenge to the EU project that stresses popular and national sovereignty as preconditions for true internationalist socialism. Lapavitsas’s powerful manifesto for a left opposition to the EU upends the wishful thinking that often characterizes the debate and will be a challenging read for all on the Left interested in the future of Europe.

The Left Case Against the EU

EReNSEP Writing Collective

Thinking beyond pandemic capitalism The health emergency that broke out in 2020 is a landmark event in the development of capitalism, confirming the underlying change signalled by the Great Crisis of 2007-9. The pandemic has catapulted the state to the centre of economic activity. However, a historic impasse is steadily becoming apparent at the core of the world economy Productive accumulation is flaccid, as both profitability and labour productivity are weak. Financialisation has entered a new phase, as “shadow banking” grew relative to other banks but is entirely dependent on the state. The power of the state derives from command over fiat money and can certainly deliver enormous boosts to aggregate demand, but that is not enough to tackle the weakness of the productive sector. The rise in inflation for the first time in forty years indicates the impasse. There is a transparent need for intervention on the supply side, directly challenging capitalist property rights. There is no evidence, however, that the ruling blocs in core countries would engage in such policies. The pandemic crisis also brought to the fore fresh divisions of core and periphery across the world economy. Imperialism has assumed new forms, spurred by globally active financial capital and internationalised productive capital. A renewed contest for hegemony has emerged as US power declined. The economic challenge of China will unfold steadily in the years ahead, intensifying political tensions and military rivalries. This book is the work of a research collective comprising authors from several parts of the world. It analyses these vital issues from the perspective of Marxist political economy and puts forth alternative anticapitalist proposals.

Economy, Society, and Hegemony

The State of Capitalism

Makoto Itoh 

Günümüz kapitalizminde para ile finans alanında düzeni ve uyumu sağlamak neden bu kadar zor? Bu, günümüz ana akım iktisatçılarını en çok meşgul eden sorulardan biri. Kapitalist ekonomilerin 1970’lerin başından itibaren uyguladıkları iktisat politikaları, parasal ve finansal istikrarsızlığı daha da derinleştirdi. Önde gelen iktisadi düşünce okulları, bu karmaşık meseleyi farklı şekillerde çözmeye çalışıyorlar. Neoklasik iktisat, kapitalizmi, tarihsel olmayan ve doğal bir toplumsal düzen olarak gördüğünden parasal ve finansal istikrarsızlığı da, yetkililerin para ve finans alanındaki hatalı politikalarına bağlıyor: Hatalar ve yanlış kanılar ortadan kaldırılsaydı, kapitalist ekonominin temelinde yatan doğal ahenk kendini ortaya koyabilecekti! Neoklasik doğalcı bakış açısını eleştiren bu kitap, parasal ve finansal istikrarsızlığa odaklanarak, Marksist para ve finans teorisinin sistemli açıklamasını ve savunusunu yapıyor. Marksist ekonomi politiğin karakteristik gücü, kapitalizmin tarihi olarak özgül doğasına vurgu yapmasıdır. Geniş bir tarihî bakış açısını benimseyen Marksist parasal ve finansal istikrarsızlık analizi, özellikle şu noktalar üzerinde duruyor: Kapitalist parasal ve finansal istikrarsızlığın kökleri, yalnızca piyasa işlemlerinde (ve yetkililerin bu işlemler üzerindeki etkisinde) değil, bizzat kapitalist birikim süreci içinde aranmalıdır. Ve günümüzün parasal ve finansal istikrarsızlığını tam olarak kavramak için onun tarihi evrimini anlamak gerekiyor. Para ve Finansın Ekonomi Politiği, para ve finans konularını ana akım iktisada alternatif tarzda ele alan temel bir başvuru kaynağıdır.

Para ve Finansın Ekonomi Politiği

Ben Fine

Jonathan Pincus

The Post-Washington Consensus has succeeded in becoming the new theoretical underpinning for the World Bank's Structural Adjustment policies in developing countries. This broad-ranging critique explains that without a much broader political economy the Post-Washington Consensus is unlikely to provide a coherent framework for successful development policies. Development Policy in the 21st Century is unique in its depth and assesses the postures of the new consensus topic by topic, whilst posing strong alternatives. It will improve and stimulate the reader's understanding of this important area, and is highly recommended to advanced students and professionals

Beyond the Post-Washington Consensus

Development Policy in the Twenty-First Century

2007 yılında ABD ikinci kalite ipotek kredileri piyasasında borçların geri ödenmemesiyle patlak veren kriz, IMF ve Dünya Bankası eliyle son 30 yıldır gelişmekte olan ülkelere dayatılan neoliberal finansallaşma ve serbestleştirme politikalarının etkisiyle hızla genel bir ekonomik krize dönüştü. Yaşanan bu süreci Marksist ekonomi politiğin bakış açısıyla ele alan akademisyenlerin yazılarından oluşan bu seçkide, krizin tarihçesi, nedenleri ve sonuçları detaylı bir şekilde inceleniyor. Krizin kapitalizmin finansallaşmasının bir sonucu olduğunu vurgulayan C. Lapavitsas, finans kurumlarının, geniş halk kesimlerinin finansal hizmetlerden yararlanmasına olanak sağlayarak yeni kâr alanları yarattıklarını öne sürüyor. C.M. Camacho ve J.A.R. Nieto, finansal sermayenin küreselleşmesinin son 30 yılını masaya yatırıyorlar. J.P. Painceira, uluslararası sermaye akışlarının ve döviz rezervi biriktirme politikasının gelişmekte olan ülkelere getirdiği toplumsal maliyetleri inceliyor. İkinci kalite ipotek kredilerinin ortaya çıkışını ele alan G.A. Dymski, ikinci kalite kredilerin yaygınlaşmasının ve yetersiz bir şekilde teminatlandırılmasının krizle sonuçlandığını vurguluyor. P.L. dos Santos, dünyanın önde gelen 9 uluslararası bankasının faaliyetlerini incelediği yazısında, günümüz kapitalizminde bankacılığın değişen içeriğini tartışıyor. D. Papadatos, merkez bankacılığının günümüzdeki işlevini sorguluyor. N. Ergüneş, sermayenin birikim gereksinimleri doğrultusunda uygulamaya geçirilen enflasyon hedeflemesi politikası sonucunda Türkiye ekonomisinde büyümenin istikrarsızlaştığını ve ekonominin daha kırılgan hâle geldiğini belirtiyor. M. Itoh, krizin özgül özelliklerine ve toplumsal maliyetlerine değiniyor.

Finansallaşma ve Kapitalizmin Krizi

Heiner Flassbeck

A radical anti-capitalist alternative to Eurozone austerity On the 25th January 2015 the Greek people voted in an election of historic importance—not just for Greece but potentially all of Europe. The radical party Syriza was elected and austerity and the neoliberal agenda is being challenged. Suddenly it seems as if there is an alternative. But what? The Eurozone is in a deep and prolonged crisis. It is now clear that monetary union is a historic failure, beyond repair—and certainly not in the interests of Europe’s working people. Building on the economic analysis of two of Europe’s leading thinkers, Heiner Flassbeck and Costas Lapavitsas (a candidate standing for election on Syriza’s list), Against the Troika is the first book to propose a strategic left-wing plan for how peripheral countries could exit the euro. With a change in government in Greece, and looming political transformations in countries such as Spain, this major intervention lays out a radical, anti-capitalist programme at a critical juncture for Europe. The final three chapters offer a detailed postmortem of the Greek catastrophe, explain what can be learned from it—and provide a possible alternative. Against the Troika is a practical blueprint for real change in a continent wracked by crisis and austerity.

Crisis and Austerity in the Eurozone

Against the Troika

The work of Costas Lapavitsas on money and finance develops Marxist monetary theory offering fresh insight into contemporary capitalism. It is fully conversant with the history of political economy, mainstream economic theory and the empirical reality of financialisation.

Costas Lapavitsas

About

Books

Join the club