Subjects Archives: Financialization

Presenting new research, Dylan Sullivan and Jason Hickel mount a devastating critique of the impact of structural adjustment in Africa in the 1980s and 1990s. Drawing on recent data on Africa’s material resource use, Sullivan and Hickel show how during this period structural adjustment programmes led to a significant increase in ‘unequal ecological exchange’, a process whereby African countries were compelled to export more materials, energy, and other resources than they received in imports. The difference between the two, Sullivan and Hickel argue, represented a transfer of real tangible materials from Africa to the capitalist world economy, for free.

The decline in manufacturing jobs is common to most developed economies and is not unique to the U.S. Further, Donald Trump is nothing if not delusional, and his tariffs will only damage both the U.S. economy and others as well.

“We urge educational leaders not to be cowed by the threats of government officials whose erroneous interpretations of the Constitution would undermine the freedom to learn.” – PEN America

Today the Trump administration told the Ukraine war party that their game is finally up.

We need to build our own resilience against the increasingly unpredictable acts of our belligerent neighbours to the south.

The collective net worth of Trump’s top appointees is reportedly estimated to exceed $460 billion, including Elon Musk’s $400 billion net worth.

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.

A popular coal-miner’s riddle from the 1930s summarizes one of capitalism’s most visible and absurd contradictions. After a daughter asks her father why their home is so cold, he tells her they don’t have any money to purchase coal.

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.

Over all, Washington has provided the regime with $310 billion in military and economic aid, which has been regularly adjusted for inflation, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, an American think tank.

BRICS keeps expanding, adding 9 partner countries in January 2025, after admitting 4 new members in 2024. It now makes up roughly half of the global population and more than 41% of world GDP (PPP). It’s an economic powerhouse, with top producers of key commodities like oil, gas, grains, meat, and minerals.

Credit card defaults in the U.S. reached their highest level since the 2008 financial crash during the first nine months of 2024, according to figures compiled by BankRegData and cited in a recent Financial Times article.

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.

The 50-Year Evolution of the GOP.

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.

Many people now live in homes and rely on infrastructure that are owned by pension funds, insurance companies, and banks.

The 16th Summit of the BRICS organization is taking place this week in the Russian city of Kazan. President Nicolás Maduro was invited by the Russian president himself, Vladimir Putin, at the beginning of August, and is attending with a Venezuelan delegation.

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.

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

Credit card data is extremely valuable for companies aiming to predict how people will spend money in the future. Knowing how much people spend, where and on what day says a lot about consumers’ financial situations.