Marxs Revenge The Resurgence of Capitalism & the Death of Statist Socialism

The failure of economists to anticipate the global financial crisis and mitigate the impact of the ensuing recession has spurred a public outcry. Economists are under fire, but questions concerning exactly how to redeem the discipline remain unanswered. In this provocative book, renowned economist Meghnad Desai investigates the evolution of economics and maps its trajectory against the occurrence of major political events to provide a definitive answer.

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Desai underscores the contribution of hubris to economistsandrsquo; calamitous lack of foresight, and he makes a persuasive case for the profession to re-engage with the history of economic thought. He dismisses the notion that one over-arching paradigm can resolve all economic eventualities while urging that an array of already-available theories and approaches be considered anew for the insights they may provide toward preventing future economic catastrophes. With an accessible style and keen common sense, Desai offers a fresh perspective on some of the most important economic issues of our time.

Meghnad Desai has produced a brilliant reconstruction of the arguments in political economy over the past 25 years in relation to the changes and events in the real world. The book also demonstrates the continuing importance of Marx's ideas for understanding globalization and its possibilities. -- Raymond Plant

Marx's Revengeis a brilliant analysis of global capitalism -- a surgical operation rather than an ideological tract. Meghnad Desai is always clear and evocative; his book is not just for economists. A must read! -- Richard Sennett

Meghnad Desai's Marx's Revenge is a cosmic joke with a serious purpose. Marx today would have been an enthusiastic globalizer. Globalization is good, because it brings the end of capitalism nearer. The anti-globalists don't realise that, if successful, they will simply keep capitalism going longer. Brilliant and paradoxical, Desai's book is a constant stimulus to thought. -- Robert Skidelsky

and#39;Here is something completely different: a really rather delightful and useful little survey of economic history... that deserves to be widely read.andrsquo;andmdash;Diana Hunter, Financial World.andnbsp;

Meghnad Desai argues that capitalism's recent efflorescence is something Karl Marx anticipated and indeed, in a certain sense, would have welcomed.

"This book is meant to annoy and provoke. . .." A distinguished economist and seasoned heretic, Meghnad Desai has spent most of his life as an advocate on the Left. This book is the culmination of a period of reassessment initiated by the challenge of Thatcherism, the collapse of the Soviet system, and the British Labour Party's embrace of market-driven politics, which has led Desai to his recognition of "the end of the road for democratic socialism."

In this provocative and enthusiastically revisionist book, the distinguished economist Meghnad Desai argues that capitalism’s recent efflorescence is something Karl Marx anticipated and indeed would, in a certain sense, have welcomed. Capitalism, as Marx understood it, would only reach its limits when it was no longer capable of progress. Desai argues that globalization, in bringing the possibility of open competition on world markets to producers in the Third World, has proved that capitalism is still capable of moving forwards. Marx’s Revenge opens with a consideration of the ideas of Adam Smith and Hegel. It proceeds to look at the nuances in the work of Marx himself, and concludes with a survey of more recent economists who studied capitalism and attempted to unravel its secrets, including Joseph Schumpeter, John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek.

A frank assessment of economistsandrsquo; blindness before the financial crash in 2007andndash;2008 and what must be done to avert a sequel

Meghnad Desai is emeritus professor of economics, London School of Economics, where he was also founder and former director of the Global Governance Research Centre. He is a member of the House of Lords and chairman of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum. He lives in London.