Contradictions and Challenges in the Twenty-First Century Capitalism. The Second Long-Last Crises

Abstract

The history of capitalism has seen Two Great Long-Lasting Crises separated by one century and which have been marked by two Great Capitalist Mutations. The first Great Crisis started in the early 1870s and after a series of big upsets suffered by capitalism (stock market crash, two World Wars, revolu-tions…), a new form of “different” capitalism emerged within its central core in the form of a muta-tion or hybrid whose reproductive mode had to be permanently propped up by the State through Department III or social services (under the so-called “Keynesian” accumulation-regulation model). The Second Great Long-Lasting Crisis started around 1973 and the attempt made to escape it resulted in a mutation in reverse, marked by the State’s permanent attempt at reducing demand, concentrating wealth and partially maintaining consumption through the financialisation of the economy (the combination of credit-growing debt set amidst speculation or the “Keynesian treatment of the price of assets”). The argument that is put forward here is that we are at the sheer limits of the possibilities offered by a neoliberal-financialised (attempt of) growth model that came into being through the second mutation. This situation is reflected by high systemic instability, uncertainty and violent readjustments. This article analyses the many contradictions and challenges that are faced by today’s capitalism; it is suggested that in consequence a further Great Mutation may take place based on a still unclear model of accumulation-regulation. However it can also provide evidence for capitalist decline (a long process of decline