Le capitalisme est-il trop productif ?

Is Capitalism Too Productive ?
Paul Krugman vigorously denounces the rise of an economic doctrine which he calls “global glut” and the inauspicious policies it inspires, which prefer to throttle the growth of production and share scarcity more equitably.
This doctrine, he says, is based on the idea that we suffer from an excess of supply relative to demand, thanks in part to productivity gains in the industrialized countries and the assurance of continued growth of output from the newly industrialized countries. It is a lacklustre doctrine all the same.
It is a doctrine which cannot withstand analysis, says Krugman.
– First, because if production capacity is in fact growing in OECD countries, it is still less than the rate achieved in the thirty glorious years.
– Next, the idea that demand would be insufficient (for lack of income or the saturation of needs) is negated by the dynamism of supply, which assures that people always consume, if not the same old products, then the new products and services.
– Finally, because the newly industrialized countries, regardless of their growing contribution to total supply, are far from having attained self-sufficiency. On the contrary, their needs are immense, and as their economies grow so also do purchasing power and consumption, more rapidly even than production.