The Enchanted World

Book excerpt: In this seminal book, Alain Lipietz, one of France’s most distinguished Marxist economists, explores the role of money and credit in the causes of the 1980s world slump. Lipietz presents a cogent and convincing argument that traditional Marxist economics has concentrated too heavily on the production process at the price of ignoring day-to-day forms of capitalist commerce—money and commodities. The Enchanted World will be of interest to all students of economics concerned with the vicissitudes of the world recession. It also presents a readable introduction to the work of the renowned “regulation school” of French economics offering a concise explanation of its emphasis on the structural forms within which accumulation takes place.