Subjects Archives: Economic Theory

It is important for an intellectual position not only to be right but to be right for the right reasons; and the near-universal condemnation of Donald Trump’s aggressive imposition of tariffs, though right, is right for the wrong reasons.

“Everything gives way and nothing stands fast.” —Heraclitus, as quoted in Plato’s Cratylus1 During the “Age of Catastrophe” (1919–45), a series of profound economic, political, and ideological crises disrupted what had appeared to be the “normal” functioning of capitalism.2 In 1930, a key moment of this “age,” marked by the economic catastrophe of the Great […]

Nobody can claim that the rate of growth of agricultural production, especially of food grain production, has been higher in the neoliberal period than during the years of dirigiste development that preceded it; it may have been somewhat lower but let us agree that it is certainly no higher.

A CHORUS of “establishment” voices, from consultancy firms to the financial press, has been demanding a boost to domestic consumption as a means of reviving the flagging growth rate of the Indian economy. The latest to join this chorus is the Reserve Bank of India which in its latest Bulletin has asked for a boost to consumption to “rekindle the animal spirits” of the “entrepreneurs” in the economy.

The primary cause of the rupee’s depreciation is the preference of the Indian rich to hold their wealth in the form of U.S. dollars rather than in Indian rupees.

Several obituaries of Amiya Kumar Bagchi have appeared since his death on November 28, covering his remarkable achievements.

Recently, there has been a spate of articles and commentary about ‘U.S. exceptionalism’, namely that the U.S. economy is bounding forward in terms of economic growth, hi-tech investment and productivity, leaving the rest of the world behind.

The United States is continuing its economic battle against China in South America. However, its influence in the region is in decline as nations seek alternatives in order to forestall U.S. hegemony.

Rich tributes flow in for the ‘towering’ Marxist ideologue who passed away in Kolkata on November 28 at the age of 88.

The BRICS declaration presumes that the international institutions in their current state are flawed because they are dominated by imperialist countries and are not representative enough; but they are flawed because their very essence is flawed, no matter how they are governed.

THIS year’s Nobel Prize in economics (the Riksbank Prize to be more precise) has been awarded to three U.S.-based economists for their research into what promotes or hinders the growth of wealth among nations; and they assign a crucial role to institutions, arguing that western institutions like electoral democracy are conducive to growth.

New institutional economics has received another so-called Nobel prize, ostensibly for again claiming that good institutions and democratic governance ensure growth, development, equity & democracy.

On Monday, the Director of General Affairs of the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Carlos Pereira, announced that his country had requested to join BRICS+.

The countries of the BRICS+ were just as capitalist and imperialist as the imperialist bloc of the Global North, argued Ngawani. 

Since the end of WW2, the imperialist bloc (IC) annually got around 1% of their GDP through the transfer of surplus value in international trade from the rest of the major ‘developing’ economies (DC) in the G20; while the latter lost about 1% of their GDP in surplus value transferred to the imperialist bloc. And these ratios were rising.

Blackstone, Apollo, and a handful of other firms are demolishing the US economy for short-term gain, and leaving workers and communities in the wreckage.

For months the mainstream media and Washington Pols have been pushing the metaphor that the U.S. economy is a plane on its final approach to a ‘soft landing’. Soft landing is defined as inflation steadily coming down to the Federal Reserve’s goal of a 2% price level AND does so without provoking a recession.

Social Security has been a financial rock for seniors ever since benefits first began flowing in 1940.

According to an analysis from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the minimum wage does not suffice to pay for a typical set of living expenses in any state of the United States. Hawaii, Georgia and Utah, where the living wage gap exceeded $10 per hour, fared the worst.

Land area under ECOWAS, which is condemned by West Africa’s popular movements as an agent of French imperialism, has been reduced to less than half after their withdrawal.