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  • Monthly Review Essays

About Michael Roberts

Michael Roberts is the creator and author of Michael Roberts Blog.
  • The Macron government has forced by decree a ‘reform’ that raises the pension age to 64 years from 62 years.

    What’s the problem with pensions?

    Originally published: Michael Roberts Blog on March 31, 2023 (more by Michael Roberts Blog)

    The recent massive demonstrations against the Macron administration in France forcing through so-called pension reforms reveals the determined attempts of pro-capitalist governments in all the major economies to cut real wages when we are old and can no longer work.

  • Banking crisis: is it all over?

    Banking crisis: is it all over?

    Originally published: The Next Recession on March 27, 2023 (more by The Next Recession)  |

    Bank stock prices have stabilized at the start of this week. And all the key officials at the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Treasury and the European Central Bank are reassuring investors that the crisis is over.

  • China-Africa friendship continues to flourish on vaccine, trade, renewable energy

    Xi’s third term – part one: growth, investment and consumption

    Originally published: The Next Recession on October 16, 2022 (more by The Next Recession)  |

    China’s Congress of the Communist Party takes place this week. 

  • Trickle down economics

    Trickle down economics

    Originally published: The Next Recession on September 30, 2022 (more by The Next Recession)  |

    The UK government’s economic policies under new PM Liz Truss have caused a stir among, not only leftists, but also among mainstream economists.

  • Human Development Index

    Life expectancy and human development in the 21st century

    Originally published: The Next Recession on September 11, 2022 (more by The Next Recession)  |

    Life expectancy is one of the best measures of human development. 

  • Oil and Gas Company

    Energy, cost of living and recession

    Originally published: Michael Roberts Blog on September 4, 2022 (more by Michael Roberts Blog)

    The G7 governments have a problem.

  • Ukraine Flag (Photo: Just Click's With A Camera)

    The invasion of capital

    Originally published: Michael Roberts Blog on August 13, 2022 (more by Michael Roberts Blog)

    Last week, Ukraine’s foreign private creditors agreed to the country’s request for a two-year freeze on payments on about $20bn of foreign debt.

  • dollars and euros

    Europe: caught in a trap

    Originally published: Michael Roberts Blog on July 24, 2022 (more by Michael Roberts Blog)

    The major economies are moving closer to recession, if they are not already there; and yet inflation rates continue to rise (for now). 

  • China’s Stock Market Value Hits Record High

    Is China headed for a crash?

    Originally published: The Next Recession on July 21, 2022 (more by The Next Recession)  |

    So, is this the moment of collapse in the Chinese model of development and the end of all that talk about ‘moving towards socialism’ etc? Many Western experts think so.

  • Automated Workers - Floating glass (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

    The Future of Work (Part 3) – automation

    Originally published: The Next Recession on July 4, 2022 (more by The Next Recession)  |

    In this third part of my series on the future of work, I want to deal with the impact of automation, in particular robots and artificial intelligence (AI) on jobs. I have covered this issue of the relationship between human labour and machines before, including robots and AI.  But is there anything new that we can find after the COVID slump?

  • Thousands of workers in this factory assembling and testing fiber optic systems. In many places of the Chinese economy, human labor replaces automation (in contrast to Japan, for example). (Photo: Steve Jurvetson/Flickr)

    The Future of Work (Part 2) – working long and hard

    Originally published: The Next Recession on June 22, 2022 (more by The Next Recession)  |

    In the first post of my Future of Work series, I looked at the impact of working from home and remote work which has mushroomed since the COVID pandemic.

  • US workers quit

    The future of work 1 – remote working

    Originally published: Michael Roberts Blog on June 7, 2022 (more by Michael Roberts Blog)

    A few weeks ago, the world’s richest man Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, told his employees that they must return to the office or get out of the company.  Musk wrote in an email that everybody at Tesla must spend at least 40 hours a week in the office.

  • Wheat

    Food, famine and war

    Originally published: Michael Roberts Blog on June 3, 2022 (more by Michael Roberts Blog)

    If anything proves that famine and food insecurity are man-made rather than due to vagaries of nature and the weather, it is the current food crisis that is putting millions globally close to starvation.

  • Median Wage Company

    Inflation: wages versus profits

    Originally published: The Next Recession on May 9, 2022 (more by The Next Recession)  |

    Prices of commodities can be broken down into the three main components: labour costs (v= the value of labour power in Marxist terminology, non-labour inputs (c =the constant capital consumed, and the “mark-up” of profits over the first two components (s = surplus value appropriated by the capitalist owners). P = v + c + s.

  • Wealth 1

    The wealth of nations

    Originally published: Michael Roberts Blog on February 23, 2022 (more by Michael Roberts Blog)

    Marx’s first sentence in Capital Volume One is: “The wealth of those societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails, presents itself as an “immense accumulation of commodities”, its unit being a single commodity.” (Moore and Aveling translation).

  • Graph 1

    World inequality

    Originally published: The Next Recession on December 8, 2021 (more by The Next Recession)  |

    The world has become more unequal in income and wealth in the last 40 years. That’s according to the World Inequality Report 2022.

  • Share of population living at below $5 a day

    Views on China

    Originally published: Michael Roberts Blog on November 28, 2021 (more by Michael Roberts Blog)

    What is the experience and future for China and its Communist party rule?  It seems appropriate to consider a number of new books on China that have been published that try to answer this question.

  • COP-out 26

    COP-out 26

    Originally published: System Change Not Climate Change on November 1, 2021 (more by System Change Not Climate Change)  |

    Marxist economist Michael Roberts shares his take on the Glasgow climate talks—what is on and what is not on the agenda.

  • Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Logo.(Wikimedia Commons)

    Climate change: the fault of humanity?

    Originally published: Michael Roberts Blog on August 12, 2021 (more by Michael Roberts Blog)

    The sixth report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) runs to nearly 4,000 pages. The IPCC has tried to summarise its report as the ‘final opportunity’ to avoid climate catastrophe.

  • Spending as % of GDP

    The year of the pandemic

    Originally published: The Next Recession on March 11, 2021 (more by The Next Recession)  |

    So maybe not just one year of the pandemic.

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Monthly Review Essays

  • US Imperialism in Crisis: Opportunities and Challenges to a Global Community with a Shared Future
    Sam-Kee Cheng A late 1940s Soviet poster showing a US military service member lounging on top of a German factory, smoking a cigar. The text beneath reads DER DOLLARIMPERIALISMUS [dollar imperialism].

    1. Introduction The predominance of US economic, political and military power in the world was established at the end of the Second World War.1 With just 6.3 percent of global population, the United States held about 50 percent of the world wealth in 1948. As the only power which had used nuclear weapons on civilian […]

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    The Colonial past haunts French Military operations in Africa
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