The Enigma of Capital

http://davidharvey.org/2008/11/the-enigma-of-capital/

A lecture by Professor David Harvey
City University of New York Graduate Center
November 14, 2008

David Harvey talks about Neoliberalism, class power and how capitalism is sustained.

All-too-plausible explanation from Asia Times (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JH13Ag02.html) of Georgia's attack on South Ossetia (2,000 civilians killed and refugees made of another 30,000; a helping hand from US airlifts of 2,000 'essential' Georgian troops back from Iraq) in terms of the push to extend NATO into the Caucasus, which, as it says in the title, would 'end the post-Cold War era', permanently activating the military faultline along Russia's southwestern border and the course of the major Central Asian gas and oil pipelines.

An endless series of Experts have recycled their opinions in Credit Crisis Anniversary-Festschriften over the last few weeks, but this one from the Moscow Institute of Globalization and Social Movements (www.igso.ru) actually has a historical perspective stretching beyond the calendar year. Good account of consumer credit gigantism as short-term supplement to 30 years of falling real wages in the 'old' industrial world, and of high commodity prices as effect rather than cause of inflation (i.e. more money 'created' than commodities produced).