"GLOBAL IMBALANCES AND THE GLOBAL CRISIS: A PRELIMINARY DISCUSSION"

"This article aims to offer a Marxist response to mainstream Western arguments that the underlying cause of global financial crisis is the problem of global imbalances, stemming from China’s tendency to “save too much.”
Discussion of the crisis-prone nature of capitalism since the 1980s contrasts the “Sweezy school,” emphasizing overproduction/underconsumption rooted in US over-reliance on the financial sector and lack of productive investment, with analyses pinpointing the US global pursuit of “dollar hegemony.” Focusing on China’s growing involvement in global production, the article draws on the latter approach to sketch out an alternative perspective on the problems of global imbalance and global crisis in the context of uneven development under imperialism in general and the Bush administration’s economic overreach in particular. The argument highlights how in recent years the changing international division of labor has globalized capitalist disproportionalities, raising
the question of international coordination to achieve balanced world development."