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In the nineteenth century, Karl Marx wondered how it was possible for the exchange of commodities to generate so much wealth for some and so much misery for the others. A similar question now haunts our discussions of financial markets: how can the expanding trade in financial securities create such extraordinary wealth for the financiers while creating increasing vulnerability for the rest of us? Taking a leaf out of Marx's playbook, I propose in this essay to follow Moneybags to the market and consider what he finds there. In the nineteenth century, Moneybags was able to purchase labor-power at its value while somehow generating more value merely from using it; by the late twentieth century, it appears that Moneybags is similarly able, in all good conscience, to acquire other people's probability—their ability, that is, to make promises and to be believed—while somehow becoming more credible in the process.

A reply to Alain De Benoist (see SA 44:2/9603582), critizing him for taking a temporary manifestation of a blurring of the Left-Right dichotomy in French politics for a substantive, long-term trend. Several features of the dichotomy are identified as lending support to its continuation as an important symbolic marker of French politics. Included in these features is the embodiment of Left & Right politics in the electoral process, the ways in which Left-Right compose the continuum of public discourse concerning politics, the inscription of political actors in terms of this dichotomy, & the dichotomy's malleability. It is suggested that these features will mean the ultimate triumph of the Left-Right dichotomy in the face of short-term changes in French political configuration. D. M. Smith

Since the late 1980s, the Caucasus and Caspian littoral states have passed through a period of extreme turmoil. In addition to the economic costs of decentralizing and marketizing their economies and the political difficulties associated with constructing new political and institutional infrastructures, they experienced interstate and intrastate war, as well as a devastating earthquake in Armenia in 1988. Despite these difficulties, there have been signs of regional stabilization and recovery in parts of the region: economic growth, an abatement of many conflicts, and an improvement of internal order; but this stabilization remains partial and precarious. This is a report from a conference held in 1999 that addressed: the prospects for democratic consolidation; comparative economic performance and prospects for recovery; the impact of Russia's economic problems and the implications of the global financial crisis for economic stabilization and restructuring; the role of outside powers in contributing to, or undermining, stability in the region; the cultural heritage of the peoples of the Caucasus and the relationship between tradition and "modernity"; coping strategies for surviving the turmoil of the past ten years; and the ability of the international community to help reconstruct the region.

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- Introduction / Petro, Patrice / Ferguson, Kennan -- Part I: Financialization, Creditocracy, Austerity -- 1. Capital, aft er Capitalism / Mann, Geoff -- 2. Restoration of the Rentier and the Turn to Lifelong Extraction / Ross, Andrew -- 3. The Subprime Subject of Ideology / Ascher, Ivan -- 4. Social Democracy and Its Discontents: The Rise of Austerity / Sommers, Jeffrey -- Part II: Media/Art -- 5. Austerity Media / Petro, Patrice -- 6. Imagining Beyond Capital: Representation and Reality in Science Fiction Film / Vint, Sherryl -- 7 Mistaken Places: Unemployment, Avant-Gardism, and the Auto-da-Fé / Bullock, Marcus -- 8. Liquid, Crystal, Vaporous: Th e Natural States of Capitalism / Leslie, Esther -- Part III: Belonging -- 9. Cuban Filmmaking and the Postcapitalist Transition / Venegas, Cristina -- 10. "Neither Eastern nor Western": Economic and Cultural Policies in Post-Revolutionary Iran / Akhavan, Niki -- 11. Differentiating Citizenship / Aneesh, A. -- 12. Gaming the System: Imperial Discomfort and the Emergence of Coyote Capitalism / Perley, Bernard C. -- NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS -- INDEX