'the Current Crisis of Capitalism': What Sort of Crisis?(Report‪)‬

Introduction Despite the growing problems created by the global financial crisis, whether there is a crisis of capitalism is not easy to determine. There is an apocryphal story that Zhou En-Lai, when asked by Kissinger about the impact of the French Revolution, commented 'it is too early to tell'. Although this extremely long-term view does not help us right now, it is of concern that many commentators are taking firm positions, forgetting that many of us mistakenly assumed previous financial crises would be turning points. During the Asian financial crisis and collapse of Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) in 1997-98, similar debates revolved around whether financial dominance would be reduced (at least) or whether business as usual would revive. Governments talked sternly about a 'new financial architecture'. Analysing the current situation when it changes weekly is hardly easy. Credit-money has collapsed, but what context and methodology should we use to understand this predicament? Suddenly 'the state' is again a major actor, and theories of money are again important, but in a situation where organisational inter-dependence and competition remain high in the financial industry.