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Capitalists alarmed about capitalism

Marxist Analysis · 2026-05-13

Core Argument

The article argues that the current crisis of capitalism is so profound that even its most senior representatives — the chairpersons and chief executives of major British financial institutions — are openly condemning the system they manage. Sewell's central thesis is that this self-criticism is not a sign of reformable capitalism but rather evidence that the system has entered a terminal phase. When the Financial Times City Network panel admits that capitalism has "lost its way", that the promise of a rising tide lifting all boats is broken, and that public resentment threatens revenge on the system, the author contends they are describing not a temporary malfunction but the logical outcome of capitalism's own internal dynamics. The article insists that what the capitalists diagnose as correctable errors — short-termism, excessive executive pay, tax avoidance — are in fact necessary features of a system driven by the relentless pursuit of profit.

Theoretical Grounding

The analysis draws on the classical Marxist understanding of capitalism as a system defined by inherent contradictions rather than contingent failures. Sewell implicitly deploys the Marxist distinction between appearance and essence: the capitalists describe surface phenomena (short-termism, greed, unfairness) while the article identifies their root in the system's fundamental logic. The argument sits within the tradition of Marxist crisis theory, particularly the understanding that capitalism's periodic crises are not accidents but expressions of its inner contradictions — here, the contradiction between socialised production and private appropriation, and the tendency for the rate of profit to fall, which drives the very short-termism the capitalists lament.

The article also draws on the Marxist theory of the state and ideology: the Financial Times is treated not as a neutral observer but as "the organ of big business" that "tends to tell the truth to its readers" because it needs to offer accurate advice on defending capitalist interests. This reflects the Gramscian insight that bourgeois intellectuals must sometimes speak uncomfortable truths to maintain hegemony. The capitalists' alarm is interpreted as a class-conscious response to a systemic threat, not individual moral awakening.

Conjunctural Relevance

The article is written in November 2017, nearly a decade after the 2008 financial crash but before the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent cost-of-living crisis. It captures a specific moment when the post-crash recovery had failed to restore legitimacy to capitalism. The specific figures cited — Baroness Shriti Vadera (chair of Santander UK), Robert Swannell (former chairman of Marks & Spencer), John McFarlane (Barclays chairman), Sir Win Bischoff (former Lloyds chairman), Carolyn Fairbairn (CBI director-general), and Sir Nigel Rudd (chair of Meggitt) — represent the highest echelons of British finance capital. Their statements reflect a ruling class acutely aware that the 2008 crisis had not been resolved but merely managed, and that the political consequences — the rise of Corbynism in Britain, Sanders in the US, and various forms of populist backlash across Europe — threatened the system's stability.

The article's reference to "the age of anxiety" and the fear that "the general public... will take revenge on a system that they see as unfair" captures the conjuncture of stagnant wages, austerity, and growing inequality that characterised the post-2008 period. The capitalists' alarm is not about moral failure but about the system's capacity to reproduce itself politically.

Where the Argument Continues

The article is necessarily limited by its format — a short polemic responding to a single newspaper feature. It does not develop a detailed analysis of why capitalism is in terminal crisis, nor does it explore the mechanisms of that crisis (overaccumulation, the falling rate of profit, the growth of fictitious capital). These questions are addressed more fully elsewhere in the IDOM corpus. Readers should consult:

  • Rob Sewell's longer works on crisis theory, particularly his writings on the 2008 crash and its aftermath, which ground the conjunctural observations in Marx's law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall.
  • IDOM articles on the British economy from the same period, which trace the specific dynamics of British capitalism — deindustrialisation, financialisation, the housing bubble — that underpin the anxieties expressed by the FT panel.
  • Against the Stream episodes from 2017-2018, which discuss the political consequences of capitalist crisis, including the rise of Corbyn and the left within the Labour Party, and the broader question of working-class consciousness.
  • The Marxist.com series on "The Crisis of Capitalism", which provides the theoretical framework for understanding why the system cannot be reformed from within.

Connections

The article connects to several key Marxist texts and debates:

  • Marx's Capital, Volume 3 — particularly the chapters on the tendency of the rate of profit to fall and the internal contradictions of the law, which explain why short-termism is not a policy error but a structural necessity.
  • Engels's Socialism: Utopian and Scientific — the distinction between utopian schemes for reforming capitalism and the scientific understanding that the system must be overthrown.
  • Lenin's Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism — the analysis of how finance capital's dominance produces the very phenomena the FT panel describes (parasitism, speculation, the divorce of ownership from productive function).
  • Trotsky's writings on the death agony of capitalism — particularly the argument that capitalism in its decline becomes increasingly parasitic and unable to fulfil its historical mission of developing the productive forces.
  • Contemporary Marxist economists such as Michael Roberts and Andrew Kliman, whose empirical work on the falling rate of profit provides the data that underpins the article's claim of terminal crisis.

Key Quotes

  1. "The 'short-termism' of British capitalism arises from their need to make quick profits. Capitalists are driven by their attempts to maximise profits and this means squeezing as much as possible out of the here and now. Greed is their driving force. They are only interested in making a fast buck."

  2. "These are not stray 'turnings' but arise from the very logic of the capitalist setup. Crisis is inherent in the system; so is exploitation and greed. Capitalism, like the proverbial leopard, cannot change its spots."

  3. "The capitalists do not take 'risks' but simply coin in the profits, which come from the unpaid labour of the working class."

  4. "Here we have it. Capitalism is creating a massive backlash against itself and the whole system. It is being undermined at every turn. It is being increasingly rejected by the mass of the population. They fear the masses will take their revenge on capitalism. They would be correct."

  5. "The underlying promise of western capitalist economies — that a rising tide lifts all boats — has been broken," said Baroness Shriti Vadera... "A better model" is now needed, she added. But she offers no alternative or 'better' model. She wants capitalism without the risks. But that does not exist."

  6. "Capitalism has not 'lost its way'. It is simply in a state of terminal crisis."