Subjects Archives: Political Economy

  • The Auto Crisis: Putting Our Own Alternative on the Table

    Deep economic crises violently interrupt daily lives and force more radical responses onto the public agenda.  In the case of the North American auto industry, however, that radicalism has been remarkably one-sided.  Absent an alternative of their own, workers were (and remain) trapped by their dependency on “their” corporations becoming stronger.  On the one hand, […]

  • Deconstructing Labor: What Is “New” in Contemporary Capitalism and Economic Policies: a Marxian-Kaleckian Perspective

    Paper presented at the Congrès Marx International V, Paris-Sorbonne et Nanterre, October 2007 1.  Introduction About a decade ago the radical left, both in Italy and elsewhere in Europe, had been gripped by an understanding of contemporary capitalism as based on a three-pronged tendency: ‘globalization’ as an already accomplished state, the ‘end of labor’ due […]

  • Which Side Are You On? Hakenmura and the Working Poor as a Tipping Point in Japanese Labor Politics

      This article analyzes one of Japan’s most widely reported labor stories in recent years.  The unusual degree of national attention given to this incident is evidence that the labor question has become a central issue in Japanese politics.1  It also offers insight into critical shifts in the landscape of both labor politics and labor […]

  • Contradictions in US Foreign Policy

    After the G-20 Summit that took up the world’s attention, news continued to arrive through the press agencies about the feverish activity of the man who had been the star in London, Barack Obama, the new president of the United States; he has embarked on the first 100 days of his administration, under the scrutiny of those who closely follow international politics.

  • Obama and the Banks

    If we take a look at the recent self-described progressive US presidents (Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton), we will notice that their progressiveness invariably fades away, not even intentionally.  That is because the beast compels them to align themselves with its own reality.  Carter, who campaigned against the wage stagnation of the Nixon-Ford years, collapsed […]

  • The Meeting with Barbara Lee and Other Members of the Black Caucus

    The morning was stormy, damp and cold. Strong winds were blowing and the sky was dark. This was no spring day, not warm.

  • G20 and Inter-capitalist Conflicts

    In the Financial Times of March 31st, Martin Wolf set down a straightforward criterion to evaluate the outcomes of the G20 meeting in London.  Will they decide, he asked, to put forward a plan to shift world demand from the countries with a balance of payments deficit to those with a surplus?  The underlying reasoning […]

  • China’s Way Forward?  Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Hegemony and the World Economy in Crisis

      2008 — Annus Horribilis for the world economy — produced successive food, energy, and financial crises, initially devastating particularly the global poor, but quickly extending to the commanding heights of the US and core economies and ushering in the sharpest downturn since the 1930s depression. As all nations strive to respond to the financial […]

  • The Seven Members of Congress Who Are Visiting Us

    An important US political delegation is visiting us right now. Its members belong to the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) which, in practice, has worked as the most progressive wing within the Democrat Party.

  • Walking on Solid Ground

    On April 2nd, while the G-20 Summit Meeting was beginning and ending in London, the well-known journalist of the influential Washington Post, Karen De Young, wrote: “Senator Richard G. Lugar called on President Obama to appoint a special envoy to initiate direct talks with the island’s communist government.

  • Why Is Cuba Being Excluded?

    Yesterday on Thursday April 3rd, at midday, I had an almost two-hour meeting with Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo.

  • Obama’s Song

    At a 2:30 press conference, Cuban time, after the G-20 Summit concluded, the president of the United States declared that unemployment has reached its highest level in 26 years in his country.

  • The Start of the Summit

    Today the G-20 Summit began. The experts in economic matters have made an enormous effort. Some, with experience in important international positions; others, as learned researchers. The subject is a complex one, the language is new and demands that we be familiar with the terms, the economic facts, the international agencies and the political leaders who have the greatest weight on the international scene. Therefore, our desire to simplify and to explain intelligibly what is happening in London, just as I see it.

  • The G20 and the HIRCs

      A group of seven highly indebted rich countries (HIRC) of the world have organized a meeting of twenty nations in London in order to discuss the future of the world’s finances.  They have invited some creditors among developing countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, some Arab countries, China, and India, leaving aside all the […]

  • Chávez Proposes Creation of OPEC Bank to Cushion Impacts of Global Recession

    During his speech, the Venezuelan head of state insisted that “the agreements not remain on paper” as in previous years.  He condemned the arrest warrant on the president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, issued by the International Criminal Court “by order of the United States” and stressed the need to create a currency to confront the […]

  • Another Great Problem in Today’s World

    The financial crisis is not the only problem; there is another that is worse because it deals not with the production and distribution methods but with existence itself. I am referring to climate change. Both are present and will be discussed at the same time.

  • The Prelude

    The baseball and football classics fill the stadiums and amuse the masses all over the world. Obviously we all consider ourselves experts on the subject –myself included- and get involved in heated arguments with anybody…

  • China on the International Cable News

    Most of the international cable news referred only to my criticisms of Biden’s statements in Viña del Mar contained in my Reflection aired by CubaDebate and published by our press on Monday 30 under the title: “China, the future great economic power”. Only EFE included a few lines at the end of its news report […]

  • This Crisis of Capitalism Is Not All Bad News

    I think that what we’re going through now — which is really just starting, we’re nowhere in the middle of it yet either, I think — is much bigger and more extensive than the Great Depression.  There are particular difficulties of fixing it because of the fact that it is bigger, it is more global, […]

  • Wanted: Red-Green Alliance for Radically Democratic Reorganization of Production

    Private capitalism (in which productive assets are owned by private individuals and groups and in which markets rather than state planning dominate the distribution of resources and products) has repeatedly demonstrated a tendency to flare out into overproduction and/or asset inflation bubbles that burst with horrific social consequences.  Endless reforms, restructurings, and regulations were all […]