World in Crisis: Marxist Perspectives on Crash & Crisis (Paperback or Softback)

Most mainstream economists view capitalism’s periodic breakdowns as nothing more than temporary aberrations from an otherwise unbroken path toward prosperity. For Marxists, this fundamental flaw has long been acknowledged as a central feature of the free-market system. This groundbreaking volume brings together Marxist scholars from around the world to offer an empirically grounded defense of Marx’s law of profitability and its central role in explaining capitalist crises.

“World in Crisis has a specific aim: to provide empirical validity to the hypothesis that the cause of recurring economic crises or slumps in output, investment, and employment in modern economies can be found in Marx’s law of the tendential fall in the rate of profit. Marx believed, and we agree, that this is ‘the most important law in political economy.’” —from the preface

Gugliemo Carchedi, doctorate (1965) in Economics, University of Turin, Italy, has worked at the United Nations in New York and has taught at the University of Amsterdam. He is the author of numerous articles and books in several fields of Marxist analysis and research.

Michael Roberts has worked as an economist for over thirty years in the City of London financial center. He is author of The Great Recession: A Marxist View (2009), and The Long Depression (2016).