The International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Bank – three of the most highly regarded international economic organizations – all predict lowered growth expectations for the decade ahead. If three major capitalist institutions are foretelling economic uncertainty and instability, it is because we are exiting a distinctive era of capitalist restructuring. That era gave capitalism a new lease on life, with growing profits, hyper-accumulation, and vastly expanded speculative investments. Little of that enrichment was shared with the masses, resulting in unprecedented inequalities of income and wealth.
According to our speaker, Greg Godels, liberal and social democratic economists decry the Federal Reserve’s strategy, but they have no alternatives to offer. They are content to leave the management of the capitalist economy to the capitalists, while denouncing their remedies. Clearly, the capitalist ship is taking on water, buffeted by a global pandemic, raging inflation, a European war, and bank failures. While there is no reason to expect the ship to sink, serious alarm bells are going off. He concludes, we are entering a period of growing uncertainty and conflict.
Our speaker, Greg Godels, grew up in a working-class family in a rural coal mining community. He joined the Communist Party in 1975 and served on the party’s Economics Commission until Vic Perlo’s death. He wrote frequently for the Daily World and other party papers as well as Political Affairs and Nature, Society and Thought. Articles by him have also appeared in numerous publications, including Communist Review (London), People’s Voice (Vancouver), and Socialist Voice(Dublin).
He is a joint founder of the website Marxism-Leninism Today and writes a highly regarded blog under the pen name Zoltan Zigedy. We recommend Greg’s article, The End of an Era (https://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-end-of-era.html.)
