Since the 2007–8 crash, no predictive macroeconomic theory can be presumed infallible. “Macroeconomics must get to grips with its epistemological woes if it hopes to maintain its influence and limit the damage done by the next crisis,” the Economist wrote recently. “Because economists have learned one thing: there is always another crisis.”

But economists aren’t the only ones who need to take stock of the new terrain. The Left, too, must decide how to respond to the failures of macroeconomic divination.

The inevitability and unpredictability of another crisis means that we must organize not just for conditions as they are now, but for a repeat, to a lesser or greater degree, of the conditions that existed during the Great Recession. That means that our strategies can’t simply be oriented around the achievement of reforms that elevate living standards; whatever incremental gains we make can be wiped away in an instant. Instead, we must pursue transformative projects that build the working-class majority’s capacity to fight harder and better when the chips are down.