On the Nature and Causes of the Collapse of the Wealth of Nations, 2007-2008: The End of a Façade Called Globalization

In this working paper, Erinç Yeldan investigates the 2007-2008 financial crisis, hailed as the most devastating (and complex) crisis of capitalism since the great depression of 1929. He suggests that the 2007-2008 crisis was not the end result of a series of technical errors or ad hoc developments that occurred on their own, but was instead the result of the systemic imbalances of capitalism over the last three decades. In order to evaluate the conditions of the global crisis more clearly, Yeldan considers it critical that its underlying structural causes are understood. The paper reflects the Marxian literature on crises, prominently that of Rosa Luxemburg, pointing out to the necessity of a ‘corrective war’ in order to break with old institutions, old technologies, and old methods of accumulation.