Subjects Archives: Capitalism

Anyone would think that after the Summit of the Americas, just 13 days after the G-20 meeting and on the heels of the exhausting tour of France, Germany, Prague and Turkey by President Obama, the world would have the right to rest for a few days.

A huge chorus now clamors to heap new regulations on banks, credit markets, international capital flows, and so on.  Regulations, for many in politics, the media, and academia, seem to have become the magic bullet that will not only “solve” the current economic crisis but also prevent future meltdowns.  Many labor union and left voices […]

Abstract Following the 2000-01 crisis, Turkey implemented an orthodox strategy of raising interest rates and maintaining an overvalued exchange rate.  But, contrary to the traditional stabilization packages that aim to increase interest rates to constrain domestic demand, the new orthodoxy aimed at maintaining high interest rates to attract speculative foreign capital.  The end result was […]

Paper presented at the Congrès Marx International V, Paris-Sorbonne et Nanterre, October 2007 1.  Introduction About a decade ago the radical left, both in Italy and elsewhere in Europe, had been gripped by an understanding of contemporary capitalism as based on a three-pronged tendency: ‘globalization’ as an already accomplished state, the ‘end of labor’ due […]

After the G-20 Summit that took up the world’s attention, news continued to arrive through the press agencies about the feverish activity of the man who had been the star in London, Barack Obama, the new president of the United States; he has embarked on the first 100 days of his administration, under the scrutiny of those who closely follow international politics.

The morning was stormy, damp and cold. Strong winds were blowing and the sky was dark. This was no spring day, not warm.

In the Financial Times of March 31st, Martin Wolf set down a straightforward criterion to evaluate the outcomes of the G20 meeting in London.  Will they decide, he asked, to put forward a plan to shift world demand from the countries with a balance of payments deficit to those with a surplus?  The underlying reasoning […]

An important US political delegation is visiting us right now. Its members belong to the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) which, in practice, has worked as the most progressive wing within the Democrat Party.

On April 2nd, while the G-20 Summit Meeting was beginning and ending in London, the well-known journalist of the influential Washington Post, Karen De Young, wrote: “Senator Richard G. Lugar called on President Obama to appoint a special envoy to initiate direct talks with the island’s communist government.

Yesterday on Thursday April 3rd, at midday, I had an almost two-hour meeting with Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo.

At a 2:30 press conference, Cuban time, after the G-20 Summit concluded, the president of the United States declared that unemployment has reached its highest level in 26 years in his country.

Today the G-20 Summit began. The experts in economic matters have made an enormous effort. Some, with experience in important international positions; others, as learned researchers. The subject is a complex one, the language is new and demands that we be familiar with the terms, the economic facts, the international agencies and the political leaders who have the greatest weight on the international scene. Therefore, our desire to simplify and to explain intelligibly what is happening in London, just as I see it.

The financial crisis is not the only problem; there is another that is worse because it deals not with the production and distribution methods but with existence itself. I am referring to climate change. Both are present and will be discussed at the same time.

The baseball and football classics fill the stadiums and amuse the masses all over the world. Obviously we all consider ourselves experts on the subject –myself included- and get involved in heated arguments with anybody…

Most of the international cable news referred only to my criticisms of Biden’s statements in Viña del Mar contained in my Reflection aired by CubaDebate and published by our press on Monday 30 under the title: “China, the future great economic power”. Only EFE included a few lines at the end of its news report […]

I think that what we’re going through now — which is really just starting, we’re nowhere in the middle of it yet either, I think — is much bigger and more extensive than the Great Depression.  There are particular difficulties of fixing it because of the fact that it is bigger, it is more global, […]

  2009 started off badly.  The international economic crisis is the top priority of governments, companies, international organizations, and individuals preoccupied with having a roof to sleep under and food on the table. The situation has surprised almost everybody, albeit Cuba to a lesser degree.  Almost a decade ago, Comandante Fidel Castro warned that the […]

  Capitalism is going through its greatest crisis since the 1930s or before.  The banking system has been saved from meltdown (at least for the time being) only by extensive government intervention in the USA, Britain, and a number of other countries.  Stock markets all over the world have plummeted.  A long and deep recession […]

At the beginning of the Revolution the Olympics were an event for amateurs. When the concepts of developed capitalism managed to penetrate the Olympic Games, athletic activity ceased being an issue of health and education, its objectives throughout history. The only country in the world where that character was preserved was Cuba which, over many […]

The essence of Keynes’s contribution was the demolition of Say’s law of markets. Say’s Law argued that supply created its own demand, so that there could never be an actual glut of production. Marx had rejected Say’s Law from the beginning, calling it “the childish babbling of a Say, but unworthy of Ricardo.” But neoclassical economics was built on it.