The Age of Debt

So far revolutions have overthrown the neo-feudal structures of monarchic and colonial absolutisms, and replaced them by bourgeois republics built on the unlimited accumulation of private wealth. This transformation takes time and has reversals, but it has repeated itself just about everywhere and largely dominates today’s world. Lenin imagined that imperialism was profit capitalism’s final stage, but it turned out it needed the free-for-all of nation-states to proliferate. Empires were a hindrance, a survival that had to step aside for global capital. (The resurgence of imperial ambitions in the United-States, Russia, China and France are so ineffective that they can only be seen as terminal). It needed a multitude of nations competing with one another to attract investments and produce value for their citizens, with tax havens, environmental negligence and social disregard being parts of the deal.

Producing or buying at the lowest price and selling at the highest, and moving stuff from one place to another, has been a method of accumulating wealth for a long time. (The other being usury, and both seem concomitant with the invention of money). It is about making a profit and getting more for less. And the problem from the start was the origin of this difference. In times of imperial expansion, the difference is provided by plunder, tribute and the expropriation of land and labour. But ultimately it can only come from credit and debt (the accompanying usury). The Age of Empire is over, which leaves only debts. Having already promised to pay several years of future earnings, the world is unable to keep up the rate of new promises. The growth of debt is slowing down, and will turn negative as defaults multiply. Profit capitalism’s final stage is to be submerged by unpaid debts. Will that imminent collapse bring socialism or barbarity?