Title: The global crisis and the changing European industrial landscape

Authors: Riccardo Bellofiore; Francesco Garibaldo

Addresses: Università degli studi di Bergamo, Via Salvecchio 19, 24129 Bergamo, Italy. ' Scientific Direction Board, IRES E/R, Piazza dell'Unità, 11 40128 Bologna, Italy

Abstract: Capitalism is still in a systemic crisis that started in the Summer of 2007. Financial instability arose from the difficulties inherent in a particular segment of US financial markets, then spread to the rest of the world. The financial crisis mutated into a banking crisis and, in less than a year, it became a full blown crisis of the real economy. Now, the crisis of private debt has turned into a public debt crisis, and the global crisis has heavily affected Europe. The recession is likely to be a prolonged one even if one accepts that the feeble recovery, if there is a recovery at all, will not end in another depression. The trigger of a double dip may be European contradictions. Capitalism could therefore face again, in the medium term, a prolonged period of stagnation with mass unemployment. In this paper, we will first give a brief outlook of the global and European crisis. Then we will focus on Europe. We will inquire in particular into the contradictions of European neo-mercantilism, considering some |microeconomic| but crucial dimensions of the nature of competition and industrial restructuring.

Keywords: financial crisis; privatised Keynesianism; neo-mercantilism; Germany; economic crisis; industrial restructuring; Keynes; public debt crisis; capitalism; microeconomics.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMCP.2011.043758

International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy, 2011 Vol.5 No.3, pp.273 - 289

Published online: 19 Nov 2011 *

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