Lecture 1: The Interregnum since 2007-9 - Costas Lapavitsas

The lecture covers topics examined in the recent book The State of Capitalism by Lapavitsas and the EReNSEP Writing Collective. Specifically, we will discuss the nature of the historical interregnum since 2008-2009, the weakness of accumulation at the core of the world economy, the transformation of financialisation, the role of the state, and the emergence of new core-periphery divisions leading to intensified contests for hegemony.

Reading List
Águila N. and J. Graña (2022) ‘Not All Zombies Are Created Equal: A Marxist-Minskyan Taxonomy of Firms: United States, 1950–2019’, International Review of Applied Economics, 37(1): 3-22.
Backhouse R. and M. Boianovsky (2016) ‘Secular Stagnation: The History of a Macroeconomic Heresy’, European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 23 (6): 946–70.
*Bebchuk L. and S. Hirst (2019) ‘The Specter of the Giant Three’, ECGI Working Paper Series in Finance No. 608/2019.
*Dieppe A. (ed.) (2021) Global Productivity: Trends, Drivers, and Policies, World Bank: Washington DC.
*Lapavitsas C. (2023), The State of Capitalism: Economy, Society, and Hegemony, co-authored with the EReNSEP Writing Collective, London: Verso.
Mehrling P. et al. (2013) ‘Bagehot Was a Shadow Banker: Shadow Banking, Central Banking, and the Future of Global Finance’, at ssrn.com.
Mian, A., L. Straub, and A. Sufi (2020) ‘Indebted Demand’, NBER Working Paper No. w26940.
Shaikh A. (2010) ‘The First Great Depression of the 21st Century’, in L. Panitch, G. Albo, and V. Chibber, Socialist Register 2011: The Crisis This Time, The Merlin Press: Wellingborough, pp. 44–63.
Summers L. (2014) ‘Reflections on the ‘New Secular Stagnation Hypothesis’, in C. Teulings and R. Baldwin (eds), Secular Stagnation: Facts, Causes and Cures, CEPR Press: London