Degrowth or secular stagnation? The political economy of monopoly finance capital and the stagnation-accumulation treadmill

Abstract

AbstractCapitalism is often described as a “growth machine,” whose insatiable growth imperative(s) must either be halted to protect ecologies or repurposed by some kind of socialist or social democratic state. However, the continuation of robust growth rates in many countries seems unlikely under present conditions. As monopoly capital scholars have long theorized, late-stage capitalist economies are characterized by a “cancerous malaise” of secular stagnation. In accordance with this perspective, financialization emerged to overcome challenges associated with this cancerous malaise. Using the U.S. economy as a case study, low growth and accelerating accumulation are interlinked under the socio-historic conditions of monopoly finance capital. This interrelation is captured by the term “stagnation-accumulation treadmill,” which stresses that the expansion of finance ensures the systemic requirement to increase material throughputs despite rising obstacles to robust growth. I argue that this interrelationship can help explain the paradox of increased consumption in the Global North alongside increased economic immiseration of the non-propertied working class. This argument stresses the continued materiality of a growth-dependent capitalist economy, even—if not especially—one characterized by stagnation and the explosion of so-called “non-real” finance sectors.