When the Crash of 2008 hit Wall Street, European capitalism was thrown into disarray. With the demise of the export-absorbing monster that was the US consumer market, what in 2003 Joseph Halevi and I called “The Global Minotaur” (see Monthly Review, Vol. 55), Europe not only lost a critical source of aggregate demand but also […]
Subjects Archives: Financialization
Just Say No to the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement
The free trade push has begun again. Both U.S. President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak are calling for ratification of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, which was signed by the two countries’ trade representatives in April 2007 but has yet to be approved by either the U.S. Congress or the South […]
The Enigma of Capital and the Crisis This Time
Paper prepared for the American Sociological Association Meetings in Atlanta, August 16th, 2010. There are many explanations for the crisis of capital that began in 2007. But the one thing missing is an understanding of “systemic risks.” I was alerted to this when Her Majesty the Queen visited the London School of Economics and asked […]
Venezuela: In Transition towards Socialism?
Nationalization and Workers’ Control: Achievements and Limitations The economic, social and political situation in Venezuela has changed a lot since the failure of the constitutional reform in December 2007, which acted as a warning to the Chávez government.1 This failure had the effect however of reviving the debate on the need to have a socialist […]
One in Three Americans Lacked the Income Needed to “Make Ends Meet” in 2009; Young Adults Among the Hardest Hit
Today the Census Bureau released a report on trends in income, including median income, income inequality and income poverty, and health insurance coverage between 2008 and 2009. As expected given the increase in unemployment — which grew from 7.4 percent in December 2008 to 10 percent in December 2009 — the report shows a substantial […]
Why Millions March in France, But Not in the US
The basic issue is the same there and here. Capitalism generates another of its regular, periodic crises, only this one is really bad. It begins, as often happens, in the financial sector where credit invites the competition-driven speculation, the excess risk-taking, and the corruption that explodes first. But precisely because the non-financial rest of the […]
Europe in Crisis
Part 1: The German Space of Accumulation The present state of affairs in the Eurozone and in the EU reflects the partition of the European Union into three groups. The first is a group of neomercantilist countries centred on Germany and formed by Holland, Belgium, Austria and Scandinavia. Their neomercantilism can be defined as a […]
War by Other Means
Phillip J. Cooper. The War against Regulation: From Jimmy Carter to George W. Bush. Studies in Government and Public Policy Series. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2009. 288 pp. $34.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-7006-1681-7. Phillip J. Cooper is an accomplished scholar of the executive branch of the U.S. government and its interaction with the courts. […]
Capitalism and the State
DIE LINKE (the Left Party) has initiated a debate on its draft party program, which it wishes to officially adopt in Autumn 2011. Neues Deutschland is joining this debate with a series of articles. In the Neues Deutschland article published on 9 August 2010, Michael Heinrich tackles the issue of the relationship between capital and […]
Report on UNCTAD Assistance to the Palestinian People: Developments in the Economy of the Occupied Palestinian Territory
Highlights: 2010: Palestinian economy far from recovery The Palestinian economy held back by: The enduring cost of Israeli military operation in Gaza The closure policy in the West Bank The siege of Gaza A weakened tradable goods sector and an eroded productive base are at the heart of the Palestinian development bottleneck. Rehabilitation of […]
Who Will Allow Brazil to Reach Its Economic Potential?
The biggest economic question facing Brazil, as for most developing countries, is when it will achieve its potential economic growth. For Brazil, there is a simple, most relevant comparison: its pre-1980 — or pre-neoliberal — past. From 1960-1980, income per person — the most basic measure that economists have of economic progress — in Brazil […]
Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit
Excerpt: Household Debt and Credit Developments in 2010Q21 Aggregate consumer debt continued to decline in the second quarter, continuing its trend of the previous six quarters. As of June 30, 2010, total consumer indebtedness was $11.7 trillion, a reduction of $812 billion (6.5%) from its peak level at the close of 2008Q3, and $178 […]
What Oil and Gas Companies Extract — from the American Public: It’s Time to End Unjustified Tax Loopholes for Oil and Gas Companies
In the wake of the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the public and the media have turned their attention to some of the subsidies provided through the tax code to BP, the corporation that leased the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon drilling platform.1 The truth is that oil and gas companies have for […]
The Structural Crisis of Capitalism
There is a very pervasive view that the current capitalist crisis consists exclusively of the financial crisis and, in so far as the financial crisis is now over, the crisis as a whole is over. This, I believe, is erroneous, and this is because, like Bob Brenner, I also believe that the current financial crisis […]
Greece and the IMF: Who Exactly Is Being Saved?
Excerpt: Importantly, the initial collapse and following standstill in economic activity and nominal levels of GDP is also extremely bad news for the strategy of fiscal consolidation itself. On the one hand, to keep on servicing interest payments (see above), nominal debt will continue to go up. On the other hand, nominal GDP goes […]
There Is No Economic Justification for Deficit Reduction
Statement to the Commission on Deficit Reduction by James K. Galbraith, Lloyd M. Bentsen, jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin, and Vice President, Americans for Democratic Action, June 30, 2010 Mr. Chairmen, members of the commission, thank you for inviting this statement. I […]
Socialism or Reformism?
I We live at a time when resistance to the inequities that exist in this world and the struggle for a better world are almost totally detached from any striving for socialism. Climate change, imperialist aggression, forcible dispossession of peasants in the name of “development”, oppression of the tribal population, gender discrimination, and ecological degradation […]
The Impact of Social Security Cuts on Retiree Income
Executive Summary: There has been a serious push in policy circles to cut Social Security benefits for near- and/or current retirees. The argument for such cuts has been based on the deficits in the federal budget; the finances of the Social Security program have been at most a secondary consideration. However, the finances of the […]
$tudent$ Make Banks Rich (Only If the Loans Are Repaid)
These are original poster designs by EDUdebtorsunion.org. They are all formatted for print on standard 8 1/2″ x 11″ letter paper. Please print and display anywhere you think this information would be relevant, provocative, or necessary! Some ideas of placement: Within Universities: Financial Aid Office, Bursar’s Office, Cashiers’ Windows, Student Unions Within the City: […]
Be Like the Rich: Why Keep Paying for What Doesn’t Pay Off?
9 July 2010 Today’s most e-mailed article on the New York Times website is “Biggest Defaulters on Mortgages Are the Rich” — in a nutshell, homeowners with loans over $1 million are more likely to have stopped paying their mortgages than those with more modest homes. As law professor Brent White states, the wealthy […]
