Ever since the latest financial crisis broke out, we have been witnessing an unexpected revival of Marxist theories as part of the effort to better understand the phenomena behind the current crisis. Marxist analysis can achieve an appropriate hegemonic role in the public debate on the basis that distinctive Marxist approaches provide a superior explanation for the current crisis. A ?Marxist perspective on periodic crises? can be based on the idea that periodic crises are not to be considered as a pathology of the market system, but as a natural outcome of the way it works. This understanding of crises as a structural element in capitalist growth has the power to increase our knowledge of reality. Moreover, the core Marxist insight ? crisis as a necessary restorative aspect of capitalist accumulation rather than as an arbitrary disruption ? is necessary to the project of synthesizing the various elements in the crisis literature: real vs. financial, general vs. contingent, periodic/cyclical vs. long-term/systemic.
