Panic Rules!: Everything You Need to Know About the Global Economy
- Book Review,
by Robin Hahnel
Noam Chomsky
"For years, people have been asking what to read to understand the global economy, its institutions, its crises, the reasons for the particular forms it has taken and their effects- and what they can do about it. Is there really "No Alternative," as constantly proclaimed? Why these arrangements and principles, not others? Robin Hahnel has written that book: lucid, enlightening, deeply-informed, wide-ranging, and constructive. It's just what has been needed."
Book Description
On this much, the financial analysts agree: global capitalism is in crisis. As Asian economies were thrown into turmoil in the late 1990s, even ber-capitalist George Soros could not ignore the flaws in the system. Yet a truly radical analysis of the global crisis has yet to be heard in the mainstream debate over what went wrong and how to curtail the damage-until now. Economist Robin Hahnel's guide to the new world economy brings the financial crisis down to earth and makes it relevant to the everyday, working public (who have little wealth to lose in the first place), not just the well-to-do. He breaks down the concepts that get glossed over in the mainstream press coverage of global financial collapse, outlining the fundamental flaws in the credit system, the inevitable dangers of rampant speculation, and the laws of survival of the richest (Rule #1: Don't panic. Rule #2: Panic first.). But Hahnel goes beyond mere critique to offer important alternatives both practical and visionary for a more just world economy. The solution of the pundits seems to be more of the same bitter medicine, or stricter enforcement of the same old laws. In sharp contrast, Hahnel makes the case that much more radical reform is necessary to prevent future crises and ensure equitable outcomes for all. In accessible, conversational style, Hahnel takes on the finance managers at their own game and reveals the empty illusions that prop up the bubble of prosperity-until it must burst, with dire consequences worldwide.
About the Author
Robin Hahnel is Professor of Economics at American University in Washington, DC. He is the coauthor (with Michael Albert) of Looking Forward: Participatory Economics for the Twenty-First Century, Marxism and Socialist Theory, Socialism Today and Tomorrow, and Unorthodox Marxism, all published by South End Press, and The Political Economy of Participatory Economics (Princeton University Press).
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