SPERI Presents...

How do we make sense of the multitude of so-called crises that dominate our current conjuncture? Is polycrisis a useful concept for getting to grips with the present condition of political economy? Are its proponents right to embrace uncertainty at the expense of theoretical explanation? Or can we hope to make sense of what's going on and chart a path forward?Chris Saltmarsh is a postgraduate researcher at University of Sheffield. Dillon Wamsley is a postdoctoral researcher the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI). They are producers and co-hosts of Crisis Point, a SPERI Presents... limited series introducing the political economy of capitalist crises, providing historical and theoretical rigour to discourses around crisis in the present. In this final episode, they review the series by proposing a definition and theory of crisis. They draw distinction between crises of accumulation and legitimation, reflect on the nature of political economy in the aftermath of the 2008 crash, consider what the idiosyncrasies of climate change mean for the general theory, and finish by asking 'what is to be done'?Works referenced in this episode:Gamble, The Spectre at the Feast (Bloomsbury, 2009)Adam Tooze on polycrisis (YouTube lecture)Further Reading:1) Tooze, 'Chartbook #130 Defining polycrisis - from crisis pictures to the crisis matrix' (2022)2) Holgersen, Against the Crisis: Economy and Ecology in a Burning World (Verso, 2024)This episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Remi Edwards, Chris Saltmarsh, Frank Maracchione, Emma Mahoney, Dillon Wamsley and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Chris Saltmarsh and Dillon Wamsley. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information. 

Climate change is one of the most urgent and existential challenges to emerge in capitalism's history. It threatens to undermine the basic conditions of capitalist accumulation not to mention human life itself. And yet, emissions continue to rise. Why? Climate change is often termed the climate crisis, but what does it actually have in common with historic crisis events like the 1930s or 1970s? What does this tell us about the possibility of resolving it through global energy transition? What can we learn about the nature of crisis in capitalism more generally?Jeremy Green is a Professor of Political Economy at University of Cambridge. He joins Chris Saltmarsh and Dillon Wamsley to discuss the climate crisis, its intimate relationship to capitalism, and how it differs to other crises in capitalist history, and possibilities of overcoming it.Crisis Point is a limited series introducing the political economy of capitalist crises, providing historical and theoretical rigour to discourses around crisis in the present.Recommended reading:1) Jeremy Green, Comparative capitalisms in the Anthropocene: a research agenda for green transition, New Political Economy (2023)2) Matthew Paterson, 'Climate change and international political economy: between collapse and transformation', Review of International Political Economy (2021)3) Brett Christophers, 'Fossilised Capital: Price and Profit in the Energy Transition', New Political Economy (2022)Works referenced:Andreas Malm, Fossil Capital (2016)Jason W. Moore, Capitalism in the Web of Life (2015)Timothy Mitchell, Carbon Democracy (2011)Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (2010)For Kondratiev's long waves: Nathan Rosenberg and Claudio R. Frischtak, Technological innovation and long waves (1984)This episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Remi Edwards, Chris Saltmarsh, Frank Maracchione, Emma Mahoney, Dillon Wamsley and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Chris Saltmarsh and Dillon Wamsley. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information. 

Does the rise of populisms of both Left and Right varieties constitute a crisis in democracy? Is this a new phenomenon or has there always been a contradictory relationship between capitalism and democracy? How does the erosion of democratic norms relate to other crises in the political economy? Why does the Left seem so incapable of effectively confronting this multitude of challenges?Michael Bray is Professor of Philosophy at Southwestern University. He joins Chris Saltmarsh and Dillon Wamsley to discuss democracy in the history of capitalism, populism as a mode of politics, and how to navigate the crisis of representative democracy in the coming decades.Crisis Point is a limited series introducing the political economy of capitalist crises, providing historical and theoretical rigour to discourses around crisis in the present.Recommended reading for this episode:1) Bray, 'Rearticulating Contemporary Populism', Historical Materialism, 23 (2015)2) Mouffe, For a Left Populism (2019)Works referenced in this episode included:Stuart Hall's The Great Moving Right ShowHall on Poulantzas' authoritarian statismJairus Banaji on the incorporation of peasantries into capitalismThis episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Remi Edwards, Chris Saltmarsh, Frank Maracchione, Emma Mahoney, Dillon Wamsley and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Chris Saltmarsh and Dillon Wamsley. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information. 

As prices keep on rising while wages stagnate, it becomes more and more expensive for ordinary people to afford the basic essentials. Does this inflationary pressure constitute a crisis in capitalism or should we understand it as a normal function of the system? What are the different ways that inflation can be managed and how does this effect who wins and loses? What effect will the shocks of climate change have on prices in the future?Martijn Konings is Professor of Political Economy and Social Theory at the University of Sydney. He joins Chris Saltmarsh and Dillon Wamsley to discuss the resurgence of inflation in the 2020s, the role of central banks and governments in responding to inflation, and how inflation interacts with crisis in capitalism.Crisis Point is a limited series introducing the political economy of capitalist crises, providing historical and theoretical rigour to discourses around crisis in the present.Recommended reading for this episode:1) Montgomerie, 'COVID Keynesianism: locating inequality in the Anglo-American crisis response', Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 16 (2023)2) Weber & Wasner, 'Sellers’ inflation, profits and conflict: why can large firms hike prices in an emergency?', Review of Keynesian Economics, 11 (2023)3) Lindberg & Maier, The Politics of Inflation and Economic Stagnation (Brookings Institution Press, 1985)Works referenced in this episode:Martijn Konings review of Stiglitz on freedomMartijn Konings' book The Bailout State (2024)Isabella Weber on strategic price controlsHyman Minsky on the 1929 crash and Great DepressionThis episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Remi Edwards, Chris Saltmarsh, Frank Maracchione, Emma Mahoney, Dillon Wamsley and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Chris Saltmarsh and Dillon Wamsley. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information. 

The housing crisis is a term used to describe a housing system characterised by extortionate rents with the only prospect of financial security realised through the huge debts associated with purchasing residential property. How did housing become financialised? What role does it play in capital accumulation today? Is this a normal condition of capitalism or are we right to understand it as a crisis? What chance do we have of transforming the system so housing re-takes its rightful place as a source of security and community?Johnna Montgomerie is Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy at University of British Columbia. She joins Chris Saltmarsh and Dillon Wamsley to discuss the role of the housing system in the functioning of capitalism, the ways in which it constitutes crisis, and why the system is so hard to change.Crisis Point is a limited series introducing the political economy of capitalist crises, providing historical and theoretical rigour to discourses around crisis in the present.Recommended reading for this episode:1) Colin Crouch, 'Privatised Keynesianism: An Unacknowledged Policy Regime', The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 11(3) (2009)2) Lisa Adkins, Melinda Cooper, Martijn Konings, The Asset Economy (Wiley, 2020)Works referenced in this episode:Johnna Montgomerie's articles on housing:'Austerity and the household: The politics of economic storytelling', British Politics, 11 (2016)'Round the Houses: Homeownership and Failures of Asset-Based Welfare in the United Kingdom', New Political Economy, 20 (2015)Susan Strange on economic powerMartijn Konings on the bailout nationGreta Krippner on small savers in the USJonathan Hopkins on anti-system politicsThis episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Remi Edwards, Chris Saltmarsh, Frank Maracchione, Emma Mahoney, Dillon Wamsley and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Chris Saltmarsh and Dillon Wamsley. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information. 

Austerity has dominated Western politics since the 2008 financial crisis, but where did it come from? And why has it proved so enduring as a response to capitalist crises (real or perceived) despite appearing so unpopular? Has the nature of austerity changed over time as capitalism develops? Or does it retain a fundamental character across space and time?Clara Mattei is Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Heterodox Economics at The University of Tulsa, Oklahoma. She joins Chris Saltmarsh and Dillon Wamsley to discuss austerity as an elite strategy throughout capitalism's history from the interwar period to 2008; the relationship between capitalist crisis and austerity; and how it binds together liberalism and fascism; and its resilience.Crisis Point is a limited series introducing the political economy of capitalist crises, providing historical and theoretical rigour to discourses around crisis in the present.Recommended reading:1) Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism (2022)2) Liam Stanley, 'Legitimacy gaps, taxpayer conflict, and the politics of austerity in the UK', The British Journal of Politics andInternational Relations (2016)3) Liam Stanley, '‘We're Reaping What We Sowed’: Everyday Crisis Narratives and Acquiescence to the Age of Austerity', New Political Economy (2012)4) Dillon Wamsley, 'Crisis management, new constitutionalism, and depoliticisation: recasting the politics of austerity in the US and UK, 2010–16', New Political Economy (2023)Works referenced in this episode:Antony Loewenstein, The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World (2024)This episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Remi Edwards, Chris Saltmarsh, Frank Maracchione, Emma Mahoney, Dillon Wamsley and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Chris Saltmarsh and Dillon Wamsley. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information. 

The Long Depression spanned the 1870s into the 1890s, characterised by a prolonged squeeze on capitalist profits, deflation, protectionism and class conflict. How were the harms of this period distributed between classes? What does this early crisis of capitalism tell us about the relationship between crisis and capitalism more generally? How can it help us understand the contributions and limitations of marginalism and neoclassical economics?Matthew Watson is Professor of Political Economy in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick. He joins Chris Saltmarsh and Dillon Wamsley to discuss the Long Depression, how it was experienced differently by elites and non-elites, its debatable status as a crisis, and its place in the thought of marginalists and early political economists.Crisis Point is a limited series introducing the political economy of capitalist crises, providing historical and theoretical rigour to discourses around crisis in the present.Recommended reading for this episode:1) Mike Davis, Late Victorian Holocausts (2000)2) Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Empire: 1875–1914 (1987)Works referenced in this episode:Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics (1890)François Quesnay, Tableau Economique (1758)W. Stanley Jevons, Commercial Crises and Sun-Spots (1878)Albert Musson, The Great Depression in Britain, 1873–1896: a Reappraisal (1959)Quentin Skinner, Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas (1969)This episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Remi Edwards, Chris Saltmarsh, Frank Maracchione, Emma Mahoney, Dillon Wamsley and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Chris Saltmarsh and Dillon Wamsley. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information. 

The 2008 financial crisis is the most totemic political-economic event in living memory. What were the causes of the crash? How does it relate to previous crises in capitalism, like 1970s stagflation? Many believed that 2008 signalled the end of neoliberalism. How did neoliberalism endure in its immediate aftermath? Does China's alternative economic model represent a serious challenge to neoliberalism almost two-decades on? How should we make sense of the post-2008 multipolarity in global politics? Scott Lavery is Lecturer in Political and International Studies at University of Glasgow. His first book is British Capitalism After the Crisis (Springer, 2019). He joins Chris Saltmarsh and Dillon Wamsley to discuss the short and long-term causes of the 2008 financial crisis, what the crisis has meant for neoliberalism, the fundamental conditions of British capitalism, and how we can use political economy to analyse contemporary crises. Crisis Point is a limited series introducing the political economy of capitalist crises, providing historical and theoretical rigour to discourses around crisis in the present.Recommended reading for this episode:1) Colin Crouch, The Strange Non-death of Neo-liberalism (Polity, 2011)2) Adam Tooze, Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crisis Changed the World (Penguin, 2018)3) Sam Gindin and Leo Panitch, The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Empire (Verso, 2013) (chapter 12)Works referenced in this episode: Helen Thompson on inflationary pressureNicholas Crafts and Terence C. Mills on productivity slumpThis episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Remi Edwards, Chris Saltmarsh, Frank Maracchione, Emma Mahoney, Dillon Wamsley and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Chris Saltmarsh and Dillon Wamsley. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information. 

What does the 1997 East Asian Financial Crisis tell us about capitalism and crisis more generally? Should we include it alongside the 1930s, 1970s and 2008 as a major crisis in the history of capitalism? Or does it simply an early symptom of the conditions that eventually gave rise to 2008? Jomo Kwame Sundaram is a Malaysian economist holding such positions including Visiting Senior Fellow at Khazanah Research Institute, Visiting Fellow at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, Columbia University, and Adjunct Professor at the International Islamic University in Malaysia. He joins Chris Saltmarsh and Dillon Wamsley to discuss the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis including the role of the IMF in causing it; its experience in Thailand, Malaysia and South Korea respectively; and how we should understand it in relation to the 2008 financial crisis.Crisis Point is a limited series introducing the political economy of capitalist crises, providing historical and theoretical rigour to discourses around crisis in the present.Recommended reading for this episode:1) Jomo Kwame Sundaram (ed.) Tigers in Trouble: Financial Governance, Liberalisation and Crises in Southeast Asia (Hong Kong University Press, 1998)2) George W. Noble & John Ravenhill (eds.), The Asian Financial Crisis and the Architecture of Global Finance (Cambridge University Press, 2012)3) Frank Veneroso & Robert Wade, The Asian Crisis: The High Debt Model Versus the Wall Street-Treasury-IMF Complex, New Left Review, I/228 (1998)Works referenced in this episode:Robert Wade on East Asia, including the Republic of KoreaThis episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Remi Edwards, Chris Saltmarsh, Frank Maracchione, Emma Mahoney, Dillon Wamsley and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Chris Saltmarsh and Dillon Wamsley. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.