An incisive and devastating critique of capitalism, sounding the alarm that the system poses a threat to human wel-being.
We've been told for years that the capitalist free market is a self-correcting perpetual growth machine in which sellers always find buyers, precluding any major crisis in the system.
<sub>Then</sub> <sub>the</sub> <sub>credit</sub> <sub>crunch</sub> <sub>of</sub> <sub>August</sub> 2007 turned into the great crash of September-<sub>October</sub> 2008, <sub>leading</sub> <sub>one</sub> <sub>apologist</sub> <sub>for</sub> the system, Willem Buiter, to write of"the <sub>end</sub> <sub>of</sub> <sub>capitalism</sub> <sub>as</sub> <sub>we</sub> knew <sub>it."</sub>
As the crisis unfolded, the world witnessed the way in which the runaway speculation of the "shadow" banking system wreaked havoc on world markets, leaving real <sub>human</sub> <sub>devastation</sub> <sub>in</sub> <sub>its</sub> wake.
Faced with the financial crisis, some economic commentators began to talk of "wmbie banks" -financial institutions that were in an "undead state" and incapable of fulfilling any positive function, but representing a threat to everything else.
What they do not recognize is that twenty-first century capitalism as a whole is a zombie system, seemingly dead when it comes to achieving human goals.
<sub>Chris</sub> Harman <sub>uses</sub> <sub>the</sub> <sub>basic</sub> <sub>concepts</sub> <sub>of</sub> Marx to show that crises are not accidental features of capitalism, but are built into its very structure, and that only a radical restructuring of the system can save humanity from the recurring crises, wars, and ecological disasters capitalism brings in its wake.
This book needs to be read far and wide. It is a clear, incisive warning of the massive dangers posed by a "runaway system" and the threat it poses for the future of humanity.
\- Graham Turner, author of 7he Credit Crunch
Zombie Capitalism is both timely and hugely valuable ....
This book is an essential read.
\- Socialist Review
Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the present-day crisis and its place in the history of capitalism.
-Alex Callinicos, author of Bonfire of Illusions
Current Events I Economics
ISBN: 978- 1 608461 -04-2
\$ 1 7
Haymarket Books
www.haymarketbooks.org