Subjects Archives: Economic Theory

Contemporary global political discourses are often noted for their intense polarization, in which elections are increasingly reduced from choices about governance and ideology to something more banal and ritualistic.

The current yen crisis could only be resolved by a sharp rise in Japanese interest rates to encourage investors to hold Japanese financial assets. 

China’s Marxist economic policy was developed to deal with a specific country at a specific stage of development. But this does not mean that it is not relevant to other countries.

Anybody who’s ever leafed through Finnegans Wake will quickly recognize that we’re not dealing here with a standard novel, just as anybody leafing through Marx’s Capital will know we’re not dealing with standard economics.

Neoclassical economics had cast Marxist dependency theory (and other heterodox schools of thought) as a relic—a Latin American intellectual curiosity from the Cold War era, now superseded by globalisation, global value chains (GVCs), and the triumph of market-led development.

In previous writings, we advanced an inventive new model for municipal finance: what we call the Seattle Loop. By establishing a city-owned public bank, we propose, Seattle can not only expand public investment through municipal lending and provide residents with low-cost financial services; it can also purchase its own bonds and “loop” the interest back to the […]

A palpable, but indecisive enthusiasm permeated a recent Seattle arts forum, revealing a city desperate for a future that no one quite knows how to build, let alone finance. Despite the proliferation of sticky notes with compelling schemes, as Amanda Manitach describes in The Stranger, the arts roundtable lacked a cohesive strategy for gathering its aspirational potpourri […]

Since capital is globalized under neo-liberalism while labour remains confined to specific countries, a higher rate of accumulation is supposed to require the creation of a more attractive environment for capital compared to other countries; and lower wages constitute one major component of this more attractive environment.

The world needs an alternative structure of accumulation, beyond neoliberalism, if U.S. hegemony is to be decisively challenged.

He taught with a kind of irreverent brilliance that made you laugh, think, and question everything you thought you knew about both the economy and economics.

Burdened by decades of neocolonialism and corruption, Senegal faces an all-too-familiar dilemma faced by countries across the Global South: how to pursue sovereign development under the weight of debt.

As Ruchir Sharma put it back last October, “America is now one big bet on AI“.

In a recent essay, we advanced a proposal for sub-federal governments to sell municipal bonds to their own public banks. We took the city as our primary point of departure, but the same lessons are applicable to U.S. counties and states. Establishing a public bank that regularly purchases municipal debt, we argued, would not only significantly […]

What chance do local governments have in fighting authoritarian austerity, especially when they are left to rely on feckless legislators at the state and federal levels who refuse to push back? Right now, we see austerity budgets appearing across every institution and major employer in the U.S. If the federal government continues to sabotage municipalities, […]

Many economists claim trade liberalisation accelerates development. But only a few economies have gained many jobs. Most have experienced greater vulnerability, industrialization and food insecurity.

Chinese regulators have advised major banks to reduce their exposure to U.S. Treasuries, citing market volatility and risk concentration.

India’s neoliberal turn since the 1990s has accelerated deindustrialisation; as the global order shifts, the country’s left must seize any openings to push for autonomous national development.

The BJP-led government has just got parliament to pass a legislation permitting up to 100 percent foreign equity-ownership in India’s insurance sector.

The Green Party of England and Wales is attracting new members in unprecedented numbers and achieving polling percentages that would have seemed impossible a year ago. However, tensions are building behind the scenes over the party’s economic programme. On December 12, 2025, just over 3 months since Zack Polanski’s election as party leader – the […]

Some of David Graeber’s basic assumptions about money and public provisioning limit what the left can imagine and accomplish.