Subjects Archives: Political Economy

The diplomatic row devolved into a potential trade crisis when Trump threatened Brazil with higher tariffs on Brazilian products if it did not cease the alleged persecution of the ultra-right former president Jair Bolsonaro.

The information on increase in hunger is far more direct and based on readily verifiable statistics, than are the official calculations of poverty.

Chris Townsend has been organizing workers, conducting political work for labor unions, and teaching young workers to organize for almost all his adult life. He is, as we say, “the real deal.” While most of us opine and pontificate about labor, Chris does the dirty work. He organizes. His contributions over several decades have played […]

We’re about to see the largest upward transfer of wealth in U.S. history. It’s also going to be the largest cut to health care in the history of the U.S. The “Big Bill” includes over $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

When he was 15, in 1929, Harry found a book by Karl Marx in a used-book store. He said reading it “blew his mind.”

The attacks on the past, as Fanon puts it, are also attacks on the history, culture, and very way of life of oppressed people. 

Despite the hot sun, few Americans were wearing rose-colored glasses these days, but rather fear dark clouds ahead. Many feel worried, even despairing. But sometimes they could rejoice at bright spots.

Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill” which got passed by both houses in the U.S. and has now become law, is a massive assault on welfare spending.

The death toll from flash flooding in Texas continues to rise, now above 100, with many still missing and presumed drowned.

It is very important to distinguish between the Left criticism and the neoliberal criticism of the dirigiste strategy.

This week, the world’s major central bankers have gathered in the sweltering heat of Sintra, Portugal (although I am sure the the aircon is good in their swanky hotel in the hills).

Heterodox economist Jamee K. Moudud returns to Money on the Left to discuss his new book, Legal and Political Foundations of Capitalism: The End of Laissez-Faire? (Routledge, 2025). The phrase “institutions matter” is a common refrain among economists, including many who have proposed progressive alternatives to free market fundamentalism. For Moudud, however, this proposition doesn’t go far enough, leaving a host of problematic assumptions unquestioned. To remedy this, Moudud draws on the Original Institutional Economics and American Legal Realist traditions to propose a robust theory of legal institutionalism or institutional political economy.

In a recent video recapping his primary victory in Queens, Zohran Mamdani did something almost radical for today’s political landscape: he cut through the usual Beltway euphemisms and mapped out the varied, living elements of the coalition that won. Most postmortems stay tangled in polite code. We get anxious talk of “electability,” “swing voters,” whether […]

The little-reported opening of a major rail link between China and Iran may upend the strategic calculations behind U.S. imperial policy in the Middle East, argues Kevin Crane.

Big tech is working hard to sell us on artificial intelligence, in particular what is called “artificial general intelligence.” At conferences and in interviews corporate leaders describe a not-too-distant future when AI systems will be able to do everything for everyone, producing a world of plenty for all. But they warn, that future depends on […]

Despite rapid technological innovations, Global South countries remain trapped in Global North-dominated intellectual property regimes designed to extract endless rents through patents and licensing fees– stripping them of wealth and stunting their development.

In communities where access to fresh food is scarce, public grocery stores can provide crucial resources at lower prices.

As profit-driven exploitation imperils Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem, some unique conservation strategies are working to save it.

CounterSpin interview with Farrah Hassen on criminalizing homelessness

In this episode, we share Part 2 of our coverage of The Black University & Community Currencies workshop. Held April 25, 2025 on the campus of Morehouse College, the workshop fostered dialogue between students, faculty, and activists about the radical possibilities of public money for higher education, broadly, and for communities at and around Morehouse, specifically. The occasion for the workshop was the conclusion of a semester in which students enrolled in Professor Andrew Douglas’s advanced political theory course at Morehouse implemented a classroom currency called the CREDO for use by Morehouse students.