Economic collapse of 2008 showed Karl Marx is certainly not outdated
ON MARCH 14, 1883, at 2.45pm, the greatest thinker ceased to think. Sitting in an armchair, peacefully gone to sleep – but forever.
Just as Darwin discovered the law of evolution in organic nature, so Karl Marx discovered the law of evolution in human history; he discovered the simple fact, hitherto concealed by an overgrowth of ideology, that mankind must first of all eat and drink, have shelter and clothing before it can pursue politics, science, art, religion, etc.
Marx also discovered the special law of motion governing present-day capitalist modes of production and the bourgeois society this mode of production created. He just did not analyse capital, he said where it would lead: globalisation, where we are today; the conservation and centralisation of capital. In the early 1960s then labour prime minister Harold Wilson declared that we must not look for solutions in Highgate cemetery. And who can disagree with that? In the after-mentioned cemetery one can only find old bones and dust, and a rather ugly stone monument. Then prime minister Gordon Brown confidently proclaimed “The End of Boom and Bust”. After the crash of 2008, he was forced to eat his words.
For decades the economists never tired of repeating that Marx’s predictions of an economic downturn were totally outdated.
In July 2009, after the start of the recession, The Economist held a seminar in London to discuss the question: what is wrong with economics?
Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize winner, made an astonishing admission: “The last 30 years’ development in macroeconomic theory have at best been spectacularly useless or at worst directly harmful.” The Vatican’s official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romao, published an article in 2009 praising Marx’s diagnosis of income inequality.
George Magnus, a senior economic analyst at UBS Bank, wrote an article “Give Marx a chance to save the world economy”. Switzerland- based UBS is a pillar of the establishment with offices in more than 50 countries. In an essay for Bloomberg View, Magnus wrote that “Today’s global economy bears some uncanny resemblances to what Marx foresaw”.
The Wall Street Journal carried an interview with well-known economist Dr Nouriel Roubin, known as “Dr Doom” because of his prediction of the 2008 financial crisis. His conclusions could not be more pessimistic: “Karl Marx got it right: at some point capitalism can destroy itself. We thought markets worked, they’re not working.” The economic collapse of 2008 showed who was outdated, and it was certainly not Marx.