Marxist Geographer David Harvey on the G20, the Financial Crisis and Neoliberalism

[marmar]

from Democracy Now!:



Marxist Geographer David Harvey on the G20, the Financial Crisis and Neoliberalism

For some analysis on the G20 summit and the financial crisis, we speak to a leading thinker on the global economy. David Harvey is a Marxist geographer and distinguished professor of anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the author of several books, including The Limits to Capital and A Brief History of Neoliberalism.


Guest:

David Harvey, Marxist geographer and distinguished professor of anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He has been teaching Karl Marx’s Capital for nearly forty years and is the author of several books, including The Limits to Capital and A Brief History of Neoliberalism. He has a lengthy discussion of the financial crisis in the latest issue of n+1 magazine.


AMY GOODMAN: For some analysis on the G20 summit in London and the financial crisis overall, I’m joined now by a leading thinker on the global economy, David Harvey. He’s a Marxist geographer and distinguished professor of anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He’s author of several books, including The Limits to Capital and A Brief History of Neoliberalism. He has a lengthy interview on the financial crisis in the latest issue of n+1 magazine, nplusonemag.com. David Harvey joins us now on Democracy Now!

We welcome you to Democracy Now!

DAVID HARVEY: Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: What do you think is the—what is being proposed by the G20 leaders? And what needs to be done in this country?

DAVID HARVEY: I think Tony Benn was exactly right in the earlier segment, and it’s a great pleasure to be here after him. I was always an admirer of his.

What they’re trying to do is to reinvent the same system. And I think this is a collective concern, and there’s a lot of squabbling on the details, as it were. But the fundamental argument they are making is, how can we actually reconstitute the same sort of capitalism we had and have had over the last thirty years in a slightly more regulated, benevolent form, but don’t challenge the fundamentals? And I think it’s time we challenge the fundamentals.

AMY GOODMAN: What are those fundamentals?

DAVID HARVEY: The fundamentals have to do with the incredible increase in consolidation, if you like, of class power. I mean, since the 1970s, we’ve seen a tremendous increase in inequality, not just simply in this country, but worldwide. And in effect, the assets of the world have been accumulated more and more and more in few hands. And I think when you look at the nature of the bailout programs, the stimulus programs and all the rest of it, what it really does is to, in effect, try to keep those assets intact while making the rest of us pay. And so, I think it’s time we stopped that and kind of said, well, actually, we should actually be getting more of the assets and, you know, much greater equality.

AMY GOODMAN: And how would we get more of the assets? How would there be greater equality?

DAVID HARVEY: I think, for example, the nature of the bailout of the banks and the sort of restructuring that is going on is, in effect, about saving the banks and saving the bankers, while actually sticking it to the people. I mean, we’re the ones who are going to have to pay for this in the long run. So what I’m kind of arguing for is a political awareness that that is happening.

In fact, it has been happening over the last thirty years, sort of step by step. It’s been disguised in this kind of rhetoric about individual liberty and freedom of markets and all those kinds of things. But if you look backwards, you will see that this is not the first financial crisis we’ve had. We’ve had many of them over the last thirty years, and they all have the same character. We had our own savings and loan crisis back in the 1980s. There was a Mexican debt crisis back in 1982, when, in effect, Mexico was going to go bankrupt. And if they had gone bankrupt, then the New York investment banks would have gone under. So what did they do? They bailed out Mexico, therefore bailing out the New York investment bankers, and then they made the Mexican people pay. ......(more)

The complete piece, in transcript and multimedia forms, is at: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/2/marxist_geographer_david_harvey_on_the

[MrPerson]

1. WTF is a Marxist Geographer?

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

2. No kidding, I'm a geographer and I have no idea what "Marxist Geographer" is

A geographer that is also a Marxist? Beats me...