Subjects Archives: Political Economy

Hearing or reading about the “contradictions of capitalism” in an article or at a rally might be intimidating, like a foreign language or a term only a certain group can understand.

Within the United Nations, there is a little-known debate about the status of global tax regulation.

Control of Mediterranean gas fields is not the reason for the current attack on Gaza, but the theft of Palestine’s natural resources has long been a goal of the Zionist settler-colonial project and its Western sponsors.

Russia is negotiating with the Houthis of Yemen to protect Russian oil cargoes moving through the Red Sea for delivery to India and China, the principal destinations of Russian oil currently traversing the waterway, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and the Gulf of Aden.

The fact that unrestricted trade creates domestic unemployment is quite obvious, and should be especially obvious to third world people who have had the historical experience of deindustrialisation during colonial rule.

On Friday, December 15th, “a “merry band of miscreants” entered a Whole Foods in NYC, lifted a bunch of groceries, and walked out in Jeff Bezos masks,” reported independent journalist Talia Jane on Twitter/X.

Access to water in Nairobi is horribly unequal. The World Bank, Nairobi Water Company, and development economists exploited this unjust context to treat poor Kenyans like guinea pigs.

The basic theme is to suggest that under neo-liberalism there has been such an acceleration of the growth rate of Gross Domestic Product that the people as a whole have become much better off, and vast masses of them have been lifted out of poverty (one particular enthusiast has even claimed that poverty now afflicts only 2 per cent of the population).

WHEN an economy shrinks, as did the British economy last month, it triggers an alarm bell to all those who live not by their labour but by ours.

On the 60th anniversary of Kenya’s independence, Gathanga Ndung’u writes that the country has spent decades as the loyal servant of imperialism. The country may have express highways, a busy international airport, a modern railway, and an emerging silicone savannah, but in reality, Kenya seeks only to endear itself to world leaders and potential investors through well-packaged imaginaries of the present and the future. Ndung’u lists some of Kenya’s extensive betrayals – not least support for Israel and the abandonment of Palestinians.

Every year, thousands of healthcare workers leave South Africa, in order to chase better opportunities, as wealthier countries exploit desperate working conditions faced by them. This brain drain is a direct result of neoliberal policies, especially austerity.

“Rushing deadly weapons to the far-right and openly genocidal Israeli government without congressional review robs American voters of their voice in Congress,” said one critic.

A racial justice-focused community organizing group led the charge for Albuquerque’s free bus fare policy.

Pharmanomics is an important book that shows how Big Pharma’s profit seeking damages health care globally, but the solution lies outside the current system, argues John Clarke

Today marks 75 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But, as Gaza shows, it is being buried under the rubble along with the human beings whose rights it was written to protect, writes Jeremy Corbyn.

THE wisdom of pursuing a strategy of export-led growth has been discussed among development economists for at least half a century, ever since the so-called East Asian “miracle” started to be contrasted with the comparatively sluggish growth experience of countries like India that were pursuing, in the World Bank’s language, an “inward looking” development strategy.

Some 85 percent of staff of the National Health Service and private medical facilities stayed away from work.

In a city awash in foreign interests, dual citizens, and intersecting and at times conflicting loyalties, sometimes the most egregious examples are hiding in plain sight.

We are joined again by Benjamin Wilson to discuss what it is like to teach Economics from a heterodox Modern Monetary Theory perspective in 2023. In previous episodes, we have chatted with Wilson about his research, the Uni Currency project, and his innovative work experimenting with classroom currencies. Our conversation this time explores the potentials and dangers of using neoclassical textbooks in the heterodox classroom; the utility of classroom currencies for Econ classes of all levels; the place of narrative in neoclassical and heterodox theory; and so much more.

On the eve of Economist’s Day, it is important to review some aspects of Che’s core ideas on the Political Economy of Socialism and especially when for some the solution to current problems is to completely free the market and reduce the role of the State in the economy.