The accumulation of capital involves the the expansion of value over time. - David Harvey

But planned obsolescence is possible only if the rate of technological change is contained.

The onset of a crisis is usually triggered by a spectacular failure which shakes confidence in fictitious forms of capital.

If, for example, a conspiratorially minded elite is so powerful, has at its fingertips such multiple and delicate instruments with which to fine-tune accumulation, then how can the periodic headlong slides into crisis be explained?