Bungacast Excerpt: /378/ Reading Club: Globalisation (II)
Dec 2, 2023
10:54
On Giovanni Arrighi's Adam Smith in Beijing: Lineages of the 21st Century
[Patreon Tier II & III Exclusive]
We discuss the Part 2 of this landmark book from 2008, debating theories of Western economic decline: Robert Brenner's, and Arrighi's critique of it.
Points discussed:
- Are you 'Team Brenner' or 'Team Arrighi'?
- Was neoliberalism a counter-revolution? A passive revolution? A restoration?
- How does the depression of the 1870s compare to that of the 1970s or the post-2008 period?
- What are the characteristics of our own Belle Époque (1993-2007)
- What matters more in explaining the downturn: inter-capitalist global competition? Upward wage pressure? The role of the global South?
- Adam Smith in Beijing: Lineages of the 21st Century, Giovanni Arrighi, Verso (2008)