Subjects Archives: Political Economy

Lean production, introduced in the 1980s from Japanese automakers, caught on in many U.S. industries.

The neoliberal years, it is generally agreed, have seen a sharp widening of income and wealth inequalities; in India it has even caused an increase in the extent of absolute deprivation.

In general, the discussion around diet today is a monotonous sermon.

The film Civil War addresses the paradox that the only way to stop polarisation is to take a side.

Russia is extremely unlikely to fall a third time for a Biden/NATO request to ‘freeze’ military operations and negotiate again.

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.

What the present moment reveals, once again, is that Western aggression during the “Cold War” was never about destroying socialism, as such. It was about destroying movements and governments in the periphery that sought economic sovereignty. Why? Because economic sovereignty in the periphery threatens capital accumulation in the core.

Agribusiness assaults on tropical forests are driving the emergence of new diseases and epidemics.

Despite the fact that China’s economy continues to far outgrow all major Western economies the Western media is energetically promoting a myth that China’s economy either has or is about to drastically slow down.

Five times in the history of life on Earth the corals have perished, swept from the board by conditions hostile to nearly all life. Each time, it has taken them millions of years to evolve anew. Each mass death of corals has been accompanied by the mass deaths of most other species, on land and at sea.

Vulture Capitalism demolishes the idea of the ‘free market’ in the corporate age, but has limitations in its analysis of capitalism and how to challenge it, argues Dominic Alexander.

JOHN Stuart Mill was among the foremost liberal thinkers of modern times who wrote extensively on economics and philosophy.

In every country and culture, capitalism depends on an ideological mirage of equal opportunity and reward for effort, to conceal, as much as possible, the reality of brutal exploitation and inequality.

China is the only country in the world that produces all categories of goods classified by the World Customs Organization (WCO).

ENVIRONMENTAL campaign group Greenpeace has warned that its future is under financial threat because of legal action by oil giant Shell.

Disinformation on social networks takes advantage of the vulnerable, while extremists advocate a “neo-fascism, a primitive, conservative, and authoritarian nationalism”.

The ruthless pursuit of profit lies behind the tragedy of Palestine as much as the global warming crisis. We should resist it resolutely, writes climate activist MAIR BAIN.

Zoomers and millennials want to turn low-wage retail and service sector jobs into stable, good-paying union jobs.

Recent years have seen renewed debate on climate strategy on the left. Here, Kai Heron responds to the arguments of the proponents of a left ecomodernism, and argues that it risks reactionary political consequences.

Insulated from popular discontent, independent central banks have free reign to undermine workers’ rights and further the neoliberal agenda, argues John Clarke.