Scott’s Articles and Letters on the Current Economic Crisis

These are a few of the articles, email letters, and other items written by me about the current economic and financial crisis, with the most recently written items at the top. More will be added later, including letters going back at least 8 or 10 years. I would be glad to hear any criticisms that anyone might have of any of these items. —Scott H.

• 2015:
  • “Negative Interest Rates, and Abolishing Cash Money” [S.H.] (4/26/15) — A letter describing the recent trend within the ruling class media to talk about the need to establish negative interest rates “in order to get people to buy and invest”, and the resulting need to get rid of printed money.   PDF Version [96 KB];   MS Word Version [41 KB]
• 2014:
  • [To be added.]
• 2013:
  • [To be added.]
• 2012:
  • [To be added.]
• 2011:
  • [To be added.]
• 2010:
  • “Record Corporate Profits at Time of Crisis Show ‘Falling Rate of Profit’ Theory of Crises is False” (11/29/10) — Two letters to friends, 8 pages.   PDF Version [233 KB];   MS Word Version [58 KB]
  • “Will California Go Bankrupt?” (11/20/10) — A letter to a friend in response to a question about the state of the California economy, 2 pages.   PDF Version [65 KB];   MS Word Version [32 KB]
  • “Comments on an Interview with Steve Keen” (9/15/10) — A letter to a friend about the views expressed by the Australian economist Steve Keen in an interview by Max Keiser, 3 pages.   PDF Version [104 KB];   MS Word Version [34 KB]
  • “Crisis Economics — A Review” (7/26/10) — My 5-page review of the new book by Nouriel Roubini and Stephen Mihm about the financial crisis.   PDF Version [173 KB];   MS Word Version [53 KB]
  • “Why the Bourgeoisie Cannot Learn from History” (6/30/10) — A letter about the how the ruling class desire to “balance the budget” is interfering with, and prolonging, their economic problems.   PDF Version [84 KB]
  • “Half-Assed Keynesianism” (6/9/10) — A letter about the half-hearted, and thus only moderately effective “stimulus packages” that the government has been using to try to improve the U.S. economy, along with an article from the New York Times about how the ruling class consensus has turned toward cutting deficits rather than intensifying the “stimulus”.   PDF Version [95 KB];   MS Word Version [47 KB]
  • “Krugman on the Looming ‘Lost Decade’ for the U.S.” (5/21/10) — A discussion of the fallacies and misconceptions in an op-ed column by Paul Krugman.   PDF Version [170 KB];   MS Word Version [45 KB]
  • “Mortgage Securitization in the 1920s” (4/28/10) — A short letter introducing an article from the NBER Digest which brings out that the securitization of mortgages was also important in the financial aspect of the Great Depression of the 1930s, and is not at all the qualitatively new thing that it is often imagined to be.   PDF Version [125 KB];   MS Word Version [40 KB]
  • “Large Sections of the ‘Middle Class’ Sinking into Poverty around the World” (4/22/10) — A 2-page letter discussing the state of the “middle class” in Japan, the U.S., and around the world, and linking to two N.Y. Times articles on that topic.   PDF Version [127 KB];   MS Word Version [32 KB]
  • “Asian Firms Gaining on U.S. in Innovation” (4/18/10) — An article from BusinessWeek, together with my introductory comments which also connect up this development with the current economic crisis.   PDF Version [106 KB];   MS Word Version [45 KB]
  • “The Collapse of Bourgeois Economics” (3/26/10) — My short letter commenting on an op-ed article in the New York Times by David Brooks about the failure of “modern economics”. (Brooks’ column is included as an appendix.)   PDF Version [137 KB];   MS Word Version [100 KB]
  • “Which Economists are Most ‘Responsible’ for the Current Economic Crisis?” (2/24/10) — A short letter to friends commenting on an article posted on the Monthly Review “Zine” website (included as an appendix) about a facetious “award” presented to Alan Greenspan for “causing” the current economic crisis.   PDF Version [115 KB];   MS Word Version [39 KB]
  • “Growing Permanent Unemployment” (2/21/10) — A letter introducing an article from the N.Y. Times entitled “Millions of Unemployed Face Years Without Jobs”.   PDF Version [163 KB];   MS Word Version [76 KB]
  • “‘Underwater’ Mortgages—Why Don’t People Just Walk Away?” (1/24/10) — A short letter to friends commenting on an article in the New York Times (included as an appendix) about how surprisingly many people are continuing to pay their mortgages on homes that are worth less than they still owe on them!   PDF Version [219 KB];   MS Word Version [62 KB]
• 2009:
  • “Fantasies About the Economic ‘Narrow Escape’” (Dec. 21 & 24, 2009) — A letter to friends arguing that all the comments about the U.S. and world economies having “narrowly escaped” a Second Great Depression are not just grossly premature, but actually an outright fantasy! Includes a second letter explaining in more detail my theory why this is so.   PDF Version [268 KB];   MS Word Version [67 KB]
  • “Job Seekers Exceed Openings by Record Ratio” (9/27/09) — A letter accompanying an article from the New York Times about the seriousness of the unemployment situation.   PDF Version [230 KB];   MS Word Version [218 KB]
  • “Bourgeois Fantasies about Economic Bubbles” (9/9/09) — A letter explaining that economic bubbles are inherent to capitalism and not just some irrationality that people are from time to time prone to—as is claimed in an article in the New York Times.   PDF Version [90 KB];   MS Word Version [61 KB]
  • “Government Admits it has been Underplaying How Bad Recessions Are” (8/1/09) — A letter introducing a New York Times article I forwarded to friends, about some major adjustments to U.S. government statistics.   PDF Version [109 KB];   MS Word Version [48 KB]
  • “Contraction Slows as Sluggish U.S. Recovery Nears” (7/31/09) — A letter explaining that the bourgeois claim that the “Great Recession” is nearly over depends on their superficial notion of what recessions are. (Article from Bloomberg.com is included as an appendix.)   PDF Version [144 KB];   MS Word Version [40 KB]
  • “The Ever-Worsening U.S. Government Debt Problem” (5/24/09) — A letter about the attempts of the government to both “stimulate” the economy through massive Keynesian deficits and also cut the ever-growing government debt, together with an article from the San Francisco Chronicle on the massive government debt problem.   PDF Version [67 KB];   MS Word Version [44 KB]
  • “Chomsky on the Economic Crisis” (5/10/09) — A response to a request from a friend to evaluate Noam Chomsky’s views on the current economic crisis.   PDF Version [111 KB];   MS Word Version [33 KB]
  • “NY Times: Worries Rise on the Size of U.S. Debt” (5/4/09) — A short introduction to an article forwarded to friends.   PDF Version [216 KB];   MS Word Version [183 KB]
  • “Irrational Capacity Extension” (4/26/09) — A very short letter commenting on an article condemning Chinese steel “dumping”.   PDF Version [86 KB];   MS Word Version [28 KB]
  • “China’s Stimulus Program” (4/12/09) — A letter to a friend about the signs of improvement in China because of its massive “stimulus” program, and about the differences between the Keynesian and Marxist explanations for this. Also briefly discusses the importance of being able to make correct predictions in scientific political economy.   PDF Version [107 KB];   MS Word Version [38 KB]
  • “Stiglitz’s Exposure of New Obama Bailout Program” (4/1/09) — A letter discussing how the big Obama bailout of Wall Street and big banks amounts to a financial merger of finance capital with the bourgeois state on top of its already existing political merger.   PDF Version [141 KB];   MS Word Version [42 KB]
  • “Chinese Seriously Worried about their U.S. Holdings... A Sign of What’s to Come” (3/13/09) — A letter to friends about the need for a scientific organizing theory to understand the crisis and about increased Chinese worries that their investments in the U.S. might not be safe.   PDF Version [148 KB];   MS Word Version [68 KB]
  • “Job Loss Curves” (3/7/09) — A letter about how jobs are being permanently lost in the current economic crisis, together with an article from the New York Times about how job recoveries after recessions are getting slower and slower.   PDF Version [124 KB];   MS Word Version [49 KB]
  • “‘Dr. Doom’: U.S. Financial System is Insolvent; L-shaped Semi-Depression Possible” (3/5/09) — A column by the bourgeois economist known as “Dr. Doom”, together with my introductory comments, which I forwarded to friends.   PDF Version [122 KB];   MS Word Version [45 KB]
  • “Financial Aspect of Crisis Far From Over” (2/23/09) — A Bloomberg article forwarded to friends with my own brief summary of some of its highlights.   PDF Version [193 KB];   MS Word Version [56 KB]
  • “Comments Accompanying a Notice of the Posting of a 1976 Chinese Pamphlet on Inflation” (02/17/09) — Together with a response to a correspondent.   PDF Version [146 KB];   MS Word Version [34 KB]
  • “The Worst Depression in Over 100 Years” (2/11/09) — A contribution to a discussion of an article from The Independent newspaper (U.K.) which reports a prediction that the current economic crisis will be the worst in over 100 years.   PDF Version [138 KB];   MS Word Version [37 KB]
  • “Marxist Analysis At Business Week???” (2/8/09) — A short commentary on an article by Peter Coy in Business Week magazine which pointed out that, contrary to what most (bourgeois) economists think, overcapacity is a major reason for the current economic crisis. My commentary agrees with this claim, but thinks that Coy doesn’t go far enough, and that he’s inconsistent in his views.
  • “Is It a ‘Depression’?” (2/7/09) — A posting I made to an Internet email discussion group agreeing with view that the current economic crisis will, within a few years, almost certainly develop into an all-out depression comparable to that of the 1930s.
  • Letter on Whether the Continued Exploitation of Past Labor in the Form of Machines is Morally Wrong (1/16/09) — This letter contains some predictions about the current economic crisis.
  • “The Significance of Perpetual Trillion Dollar Deficits” (1/7/09) — Comments on a Washington Post news report saying that Obama expects trillion dollar deficits for years into the future.   PDF Version [59 KB];   MS Word Version [38 KB]
• 2008:
  • “Video Lecture by John Bellamy Foster on the Economic Crisis Available” (12/27/08) — Letter recommending this video from Nov. 3, 2008, but including a few criticisms of it.   PDF Version [94 KB];   MS Word Version [30 KB]
  • “Saving Capitalism No Sure Thing...” (12/22/08) — Letter commenting on an article from Bloomberg News reporting deep worries about what the crisis will mean for “private enterprise”.   PDF Version [214 KB];   MS Word Version [42 KB]
  • “The Worst is Yet to Come” (11/22/08) — A Reuters article about the top IMF economist predicting the worst of the current financial/economic crisis is yet to come, together with my own brief commentary.
  • “Are Bankers Idiots? And How About Us?” (11/10/08) — Letter briefly comparing the wisdom of Marxist political economy to the foolishness of bourgeois economics.   PDF Version [106 KB];   MS Word Version [44 KB]
  • “The Crisis is an Overproduction Crisis” (10/29/08) — Letter about how the current crisis is most essentially due to the overproduction of capital, and is not merely an financial crisis. Includes an article from the Financial Times about overproduction in the automobile industry.   PDF Version [69 KB];   MS Word Version [34 KB]
  • “On Naomi Klein’s Theory that Public Infrastructure will be ‘the Next Bubble’” (10/24/08) — A letter pooh-poohing this notion.   PDF Version [136 KB];   MS Word Version [33 KB]
  • “Wallerstein Says we have Entered a Depression” (10/17/08) — Letter discussing Immanuel Wallerstein’s view, together with his article.   PDF Version [95 KB];   MS Word Version [39 KB]
  • “On Mike Davis’ Essay ‘Can Obama See the Grand Canyon?’” (10/16/08) — Letter commenting on an essay written by the well-known socialist writer Mike Davis.   PDF Version [125 KB];   MS Word Version [32 KB]
  • “Can the Crisis be brought under Control?’” (10/11/08) — Letter raising the real possibility that this crisis will eventually develop into a depression, or else predicting that one of the next few recessions will.   PDF Version [185 KB];   MS Word Version [39 KB]
  • “Fed Buying Up Corporate Debt” (10/7/08) — Letter discussing the Federal Reserve’s move to purchase “commercial paper”.   PDF Version [93 KB];   MS Word Version [39 KB]
  • “Is It Socialism?” (Sept. 25-27, 2008) — An email discussion between Scott H. and his friend Kirby about whether the bailouts and partial nationalization of several banks and financial institutions by the U.S. government should be considered “socialism”.
  • “Top Execs at Bailed-Out Firms Made $27 Billion over Past 5 Years” (9/25/08) — Letter about the obscene looting of bailed-out financial corporations by their top execs.   PDF Version [67 KB];   MS Word Version [32 KB]
  • “Will the $700 Billion Bailout End the Crisis?” (9/20/08) — Letter pointing out that the bailout is just one of many and that it certainly won’t end the underlying economic crisis.   PDF Version [95 KB];   MS Word Version [39 KB]
  • “Government Bailouts are Nothing New” (9/19/08) — Letter commenting on a point raised in an article forwarded by a friend.   PDF Version [150 KB];   MS Word Version [38 KB]
  • “The Crisis has Become an All-Out Panic” (9/18/08) — Letter about the deepening financial crisis and the ever more serious overall economic crisis.   PDF Version [114 KB];   MS Word Version [41 KB]
  • “The Economic Merger of Corporate Capital and the Capitalist State” (9/8/08) — Letter about the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the larger implications.   PDF Version [141 KB];   MS Word Version [34 KB]
    • “Do the Right and Left Agree on the Economy?” (9/17/08) — A letter from a friend in response to the above item, together with my response.   PDF Version [62 KB];   MS Word Version [31 KB]
  • “Bankers Caught between Hope and Despair” (8/24/08) — Letter about how central bankers are unsure if the financial crisis will affect the “real economy”, together with an article from the Financial Times.   PDF Version [52 KB];   MS Word Version [33 KB]
  • “Too Big to Fail — the Continuing Story...” (7/20/08) — Letter about how the U.S. government is being forced to bail out Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, etc.   PDF Version [111 KB];   MS Word Version [43 KB]
  • “Is the Current Economic Crisis a Crisis of Overproduction?” (July 11, 2008) — This letter responds to a question about the nature of the currently developing crisis, and also addresses the issue of the means that imperialist powers use to dump the effects of their own crises onto the backs of people of the countries they exploit.
  • “The Developing Crisis Brings about More Intense Disagreements among Economists” (7/6/08) — Letter about how bourgeois economists are growing more and more testy with each other, together with a column from the Financial Times.   PDF Version [62 KB];   MS Word Version [41 KB]
  • “Some Important Articles about the Current Economic Crisis” (4/9/08) — A letter recommending several articles about the developing crisis that appeared in Monthly Review and elsewhere. Also includes some of my predictions about how this crisis will develop, eventually into a depression.   PDF Version [86 KB];   MS Word Version [32 KB]

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