Subjects Archives: Capitalism

THE wisdom of pursuing a strategy of export-led growth has been discussed among development economists for at least half a century, ever since the so-called East Asian “miracle” started to be contrasted with the comparatively sluggish growth experience of countries like India that were pursuing, in the World Bank’s language, an “inward looking” development strategy.

Here is a list of studies, surveys and polling results that shed some light on popular perceptions of post-growth and post-capitalist ideas.

While handing over tax concessions to capitalists to ‘promote employment’, the Centre is not spending to fill the large number of government vacancies, or on MGNREGS.

Company expedited the shipment of 1,000 precision-guided munitions to Israel.

Review of ‘Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food … and Why Can’t We Stop?’ By Chris van Tulleken.

The basic aim of ‘Tipping Point for Advanced Capitalism: Class, Class Consciousness and Activism in the “Knowledge Economy”’ is to bring class back into thinking about capitalism and alternatives.

A review of ‘Marx in the Anthropocene: Towards the Idea of Degrowth Communism’, Kohei Saito (Cambridge University Press, 2022)

One accusation still seems to lack an adequate response: Is the U.S. working class inherently anti-degrowth because it would mean a massive loss of jobs?

An estimated 12 million metric tons of plastic currently enters the ocean each year.

The surprising history of cars in the U.S. offers hope for a shift toward more climate-friendly transportation options.

Ajay Banga was anointed World Bank president for promoting financial inclusion. Thanks to its success and interest rate hikes, more poor people are drowning in debt as consumer prices rise.

THE Modi government, ever solicitous of corporate interests, has launched a plan whereby real estate developers and other corporates will be allowed to destroy large swathes of India’s forest cover for starting projects that rake in profits. It is amending the Forest Conservation Act to remove those forest patches that are not deemed as such by the government from protection under the Act.

“Welfare for Markets” exposes the neoliberal links of basic income, and helps to explain why it is not a useful demand for the left, argues Dominic Alexander

Foster explains Marx’s ecological critique of capitalism and how the concept of “metabolic rift” highlights the alienation between humans and nature caused by capitalism’s focus on profit over sustainability.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek last week welcomed a UNESCO World Heritage Committee decision not to list the Great Barrier Reef as “in danger”. But what is “great news” to Plibersek is not great news for the reef. 

Ah, money, the driving force behind life in the modern world.

The India-Middle East-Europe transportation corridor may be the talk of the town, but it will likely go the way of the last three Asia-to-Europe connectivity projects touted by the west-to the dustbin. Here’s why.

The Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion in British Columbia is running into another round of problems and generating even more opposition. ‘The controversial government-owned fossil fuel company is seeking regulatory approval to change its pipeline construction methods and route, after running into problems drilling a tunnel.’

The great cultural theorist Stuart Hall called Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth “the bible of decolonisation” as it encapsulated the urge for freedom across the colonial world. Fanon illuminates how racism represented an organising principle for capitalist classes by systematically devaluing the lives of the majority of the world’s population.

Éric Toussaint’s history of the World Bank shows powerfully how it and other international institutions have enforced imperialist exploitation, finds John Clarke