[p2p-research] on inflation as a strategy

[Michel Bauwens]

http://bnarchives.yorku.ca/1/02/040813BN_Dominant_Capital_&_the_New_Wars_%281PageView%29.pdf

Interesting paper:


We use the ‘new wars’ as a stepping

stone to understand a triple transformation

that altered the nature of capital, the accumulation

of capital and the unit of capital. Specifically,

our argument builds on a power understanding

of capital that emphasizes differential

accumulation by dominant capital groups.

Accumulation, we argue, has little to do with

the amassment of material things measured

in ‘utils’ or ‘abstract labor.’ Instead, accumulation,

or ‘capitalization,’ represents a commodification

of power by leading groups in

society. Over the past century, this power has

been re-structured and concentrated through

two distinct regimes of differential accumulation—‘

breadth’ and ‘depth.’ A breadth regime

relies on proletarianization, on green-field

investment and, particularly, on mergers and

acquisitions. A depth regime builds on redistribution

through stagflation—that is, on differential

inflation in the midst of stagnation.

In contrast to breadth which presupposes

some measure of growth and stability, depth

thrives on ‘accumulation through crisis.’

The past twenty years were dominated

by breadth, buttressed by neoliberal rhetoric,

globalization and capital mobility. This

regime started to run into mounting difficulties

in the late 1990s, and eventually collapsed

in 2000. For differential accumulation to continue,

dominant capital now needs inflation,

and inflation requires instability and social

crisis. It is within this broader dynamics of

power accumulation that the new wars need

to be understood.


-- 
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