Subjects Archives: Capitalism

Art costs money. Creativity takes time. The combination of time and money is in short supply within capitalist democracy.

In today’s political climate, the word racism has become taboo.

THE fact that income and wealth inequalities have increased quite dramatically under the neo-liberal regime is beyond dispute. The empirical work by Piketty’s team bears out the increase in income inequality. They use income tax data to infer about the share of the top 1 per cent of the population of a country in its national income.

Readers of the first volume of Capital sometimes mistakenly conceptualize capitalism in terms of a relationship between workers and a single capitalist. In doing so they fail to notice that for Marx capitalist society is not one big capitalist enterprise.

“When British capitalism depended on the West Indies,” Eric Williams wrote in 1938, “they ignored slavery or defended it. When British capitalism found the West Indian monopoly a nuisance, they destroyed West Indian slavery.”

In my opinion, American capitalism no longer has any use for, let’s say, 40 percent of the population. These are the descendants of folks who were brought over here in one way or another during the period of capital accumulation. They’re now superfluous human beings.

Capitalist and neocolonial fantasies are hampering a just transition.

It is in vogue nowadays to describe the multifaceted and intertwined crises of capitalism without referring to capitalism itself. Obscure jargon of ‘overlapping emergencies’ and ‘polycrisis’ are brought up to describe the complexity of the situation, and they serve, with or without intention, to conceal the culprit, namely the totality of capitalist relations.

China was once the world’s highest producer of soybeans, accounting for about 90% of the total. Currently, 60 percent of global soybean exports are destined for the Chinese market.

The US-led imperialist world system is in deep crisis, so it wages a new cold war to prevent multipolarity, while lurching toward fascism. The left must offer a true alternative path that opposes both the far right and the liberal pro-NATO chauvinists.

Big Oil stands to pocket billions in taxpayer dollars by way of carbon capture, their latest climate scam. Here’s how they’ll do it.

The dogmatic obsession with and focus on fighting inflation in rich countries are pushing the world economy into recession, with many dire consequences, especially for poorer countries. This phobia is due to myths shared by most central bankers.

FOR the first time ever, the annual rate of inflation in the Eurozone, measured by the Consumer Price Index, has reached double digits: it exceeded 10 per cent in September 2022, up from 9.1 per cent in August.

The Secretary-General of the UNCTAD is warning that “the current course of action is hurting the most vulnerable, especially in developing countries, and risks tipping the world into a global recession.”

ON September 23, the value of the rupee vis-a-vis the dollar fell to a new low: it crossed 81 to a dollar after some weeks of relative stability when it hovered between 79 and 80.

Like a traveler sailing the Archipelago who sees the luminous mists lift toward evening, and little by little makes out the shore, I begin to discern the profile of my death.
— Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian

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

Central banks (CBs) around the world–led by the U.S. Fed, European Central Bank and Bank of England–are raising interest rates, ostensibly to check inflation. The ensuing race to the bottom is hastening world economic recession.

Simon Hannah reports on the mounting crisis for British capitalism.

Eleven million dollars per minute! That’s how much all the countries in the world spend to subsidize fossil fuels. That’s what we pay.