Subjects Archives: Capitalism

According to SIPRI, global military spending will reach a new record high of $2,240 billion in 2022.

A new report out from the National Center for Health Statistics finds that U.S. maternal deaths have increased by an alarming 40% since 2020.

While discussing about primary accumulation of capital, Marx did refer to a process of alienating direct producers from the means of production and this has been done by the use of coercion.

Here are three examples of criminal misuse of enormous sums of money that could meet human needs, but instead are spent underwriting terrible violence and bolstering corporate profits.

One of the central insights emerging from research on degrowth and climate mitigation is that universal public services are crucial to a just and effective transition.

New data show the wealthiest Americans have stashed $2 trillion in offshore tax havens, as the government relaxes efforts to combat tax evasion.

Except in war-time, capitalism invariably seeks to control inflation by creating a recession; and this is so even when the inflation has been caused by an autonomous increase in capitalists’ profit-margins which are downward inflexible and hence would not be reduced by a recession.

Western sanctions imposed on Iran, Russia, Syria, and in fact any country that refuses to be driven by Western will, have motivated many countries in the world to search seriously for ways and means to liberate their destinies from Western hegemony.

Before the pandemic was announced by the World Health Organisation in March 2020, the poorer nations of the world already struggled with seriously high—and unpayable—levels of debt.

Before it collapsed and its billionaire depositors were bailed out by the U.S. government, Silicon Valley Bank successfully lobbied Congress to remove regulations on it. A senator admitted, “I understand why Americans are angry, even disgusted”.

This world needs revolutionaries who refuse orders to kill and exploit. Two midwives named Shifra and Puah were such revolutionaries. When a racist ruler asked them to limit the reproduction of slaves—out of fear of a slave uprising—they disobeyed.

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.

THERE is a commonly-held view that while capitalism in its early stages brings about unemployment and hence an accentuation of poverty, this initial damage is subsequently reversed as it keeps growing

The universal premises of culture and politics have been subject to criticism from the moment that Enlightenment theories emerged. In postmodern theory, radical skepticism replaces judgement and makes universal speculation seem like either an absurd game or a violent imposition.

In this reprise from October 1993, Harry Magdoff and Paul Sweezy ask: “Isn’t there anyone around here who understands how this capitalist system works?”

“This provocative set of essays challenges many conventional assumptions and assessments about contemporary global capitalism. The comprehensive analysis of war and geopolitics, the political economy of international trade and finance, the struggle of different powers to control nature and the planet with its ecological and distributive implications, makes it essential reading.” —Jayati Ghosh

The U.S. Federal Reserve printed $300 billion in a week to save collapsing banks and bail out Silicon Valley oligarchs. 93% of Silicon Valley Bank’s deposits were uninsured, over the FDIC limit of $250,000, but the government still paid them. 56% of SVB’s loans went to venture capitalist and private equity firms.

Kailath, originally from Kerala but settled in the U.S., is one of the foremost names in the world in communications, control and signal processing. I remembered his words while reading the recent startling headlines that China has become the world leader in 37 of 44 critical technologies evaluated by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI).

I need to report a theft. Nassau County law enforcement stole $500 from my friend, Sylvester “Sonny” Jackson.

Economist Michael Hudson responds to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Silvergate, and explains the similarities with the 2008 financial crash and the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s.