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Twenty-two years of austerity in Timor-Leste: The IMF and rebuilding the neoliberal state from scratch
Timor-Leste was proclaimed by the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (FRETILIN) as a sovereign state on November 28, 1975.
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The perils of Pious Neoliberalism in the Austerity State: The Fifty-First Newsletter (2022)
The International Labour Organisation’s Global Wage Report 2022–23 tracks the horrendous collapse of real wages for billions of people around the planet.
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Our survival depends on a world without billionaires
The study looks at the impact of 125 of the richest billionaires globally, whose carbon emissions equal those of France, or 67 million people, and shows that just the richest 10 of those individuals own more wealth than the poorest 40% of humanity. The average billionaire in the study is responsible for carbon emissions over one million times higher than the average person in the bottom 90% of humanity.
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Anti-capitalism is the only way to save creativity from AI
Art costs money. Creativity takes time. The combination of time and money is in short supply within capitalist democracy.
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Ghost stories of capitalism: Racism is REAL, and it’s a class struggle
In today’s political climate, the word racism has become taboo.
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On income and wealth inequality
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.
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‘Capitalism as Civilisation: A History of International Law’ review
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.
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‘Capitalism and Slavery’, and dismantling the accepted narratives of history
“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.”
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Our kind of Marxist: an interview with Staughton Lynd
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.
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Green growth
Capitalist and neocolonial fantasies are hampering a just transition.
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Beating around the bush: polycrisis, overlapping emergencies, and capitalism
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.
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In a soybean game dominated by capital, no one wins
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.
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World at dangerous crossroads, only two paths forward: anti-imperialist socialism or fascist barbarism
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.
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Cashing in on carbon capture: How Big Oil will spend our money
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.
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Central bank myths drag down world economy
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.
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Acceleration in Eurozone inflation rate
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.
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Rich nation’s solution for inflation is a poor country’s problem
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.”
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The new threat on the Foreign Exchange front
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.
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The inevitable financial crisis
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 -
Trickle down economics
The UK government’s economic policies under new PM Liz Truss have caused a stir among, not only leftists, but also among mainstream economists.