THE RISE AND FALL OF THE KEYNESIAN ERA (1944-1971)

Background reading: Part I of my essay "The Rise and Fall of the Keynesian State," plus a review of any chapters on international trade and money in any introductory or intermediate text you find necessary to understand this essay. You will find a careful reading of this essay extremely useful as a guide to the kinds of materials we will be covering and the kinds of background you need to have to get the most from the materials of the course.

These initial lectures will be followed by others on the breakdown of the international monetary system through chronic balance of payments disequilibrium and the failure of adjustment mechanisms, with some discussion of the national economic problems underlying the international collapse. We will then turn to the heart of the kind of analysis on which this course is based: an examination of the socio-political roots of these macroeconomic phenomena. The object is to learn how to read through the "economic" crisis to discover the social and political conflicts which underlie both the various crises and the attempts to resolve them. Read Part II of my essay "The Rise and Fall of the Keynesian State." The last section of this part gives an overview of the other sections of the course.

1. Mainstream Analysis

Article typical of the period before complete breakdown which analyses the old international system and its growing instability and proposes some solutions. Cooper was professor at Yale and government advisor, then in the Trilateral Commission and Carter State Department.

If you are not familiar with the workings of the International Monetary Fund you should consult the Fund's own self description. "A Global Institution: The IMF's Role at a Glance"

The role of the Fund has changed somewhat since the switch from fixed exchange rates to floating exchange rates, and the page gives you a brief description of those changes. But the basic role, of coordinating and enforcing the international monetary rules of the game are basically the same.

Like it says. Early reaction and analysis of 1971 collapse which brings in political factors. By a vice president of First National City Bank and a member of the CFR.

Trilateral Commission analysis of political economic crisis in United States that concludes that the problem is too much democracy.

2. Radical Analysis

A radical overview of the breakdown of accumulation strategies of business in the 1960s in both factory and community: the revolt against work and social control which the Trilateral Commission's book The Crisis of Democracy called an "excess of democracy." Zerowork was a radical journal, published briefly in the mid-1970s to provide a new analysis of the crisis -one different from those then current among mainstream critics. Summary of article.

The crisis in the current educational system of producing labor power -- mainly at the university level. The collapse of business' human capital strategy.

Overview of international crisis interpreted as a breakdown in capitalist control due to an international cycle of working class struggle. Difficult article to read. Reread with various parts of course -- compare with The Crisis of Democracy material which is elite variation of same interpretation.