In this episode we are joined by Christine Desan, Leo Goettlieb professor of law at Harvard Law School to discuss her excellent book, Making Money: Coin, Currency, and the Coming of Capitalism.
Subjects Archives: Political Economy
Airbnb’s A’s and B’s
This is most clearly shown in what is allowed by the powers that run the financial system.
‘Stimulus bill’: Congress gives working class the middle finger
Democrat and Republican leaders in Congress announced a new $900 billion stimulus bill over the weekend for a second round of “relief” in the face of the worsening pandemic and related economic crisis.
A matter of survival of the peasantry
The kisans gathered around the Delhi border have unerringly put their fingers on the real issue confronting them, namely their very survival as peasants.
How the fracking revolution is killing the U.S. oil and gas industry
After over a decade of the much-hyped U.S. fracking miracle, the U.S. oil and gas industry is having to deal with years of losses and falling asset values which has dealt the industry a serious financial blow. This is despite the fracking revolution delivering record oil and gas production for the past decade, peaking in 2019.
Climate and environmental crisis: Sorcerer’s apprentices at the World Bank and the IMF
In December 2020, on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the signature of the Paris Agreement on Climate, the UN General Secretary sounded the alarm because the situation has fundamentally worsened. In this article we analyze what the World Bank and the IMF have done in connection with the environmental crisis and climate change.
Why is the Guardian promoting more Pentagon propaganda?
Recent reporting reinforces the false impression that the United States is threatened by Chinese and Russian expansionism.
Miliband’s masterpiece
Fifty years after it was published, The State in Capitalist Society remains indispensable for any socialist movement with ambitions of government.
Leo Panitch, intellectual pillar of the Canadian left, dead at 75 of COVID-19
Leo Victor Panitch, one of the intellectual pillars of the Canadian left and a leading scholar of the global depredations of neoliberalism, died Saturday from COVID-19. He was 75.
In a pandemic, why are cities still making it hard for people to get utilities?
With the continuing pandemic–and expiring housing and unemployment benefits across the country–millions of people may have their utilities cut off soon.
Empire, socialism and November /w Leo Panitch
First, whether the pandemic has fundamentally altered the geopolitical balance between the U.S. and other great powers, specifically China. And second, how socialists in the U.S. should approach the November elections. For Panitch, the two issues are intimately connected.
Chart of the day
Both the number of initial unemployment claims for unemployment compensation and the number of continued claims for unemployment compensation are once again on the rise, signaling a worsening of the Pandemic Depression.
Bilateral swaps in China’s global presence
China’s use of yuan-denominated central bank swaps, while enhancing its influence, is a source of support for developing countries in an unequal international order.
Canada is choosing corporate property rights over the health of billions
Unequal distribution means the poorest countries are getting trampled in the stampede for COVID-19 vaccines.
How the rich are cashing in on pandemic pain
Millions of day labourers in India lost their jobs overnight earlier this year when Narendra Modi’s central government hastily announced a national lockdown.
We can’t bank on climate action
Bank of England forced to deny taking basic climate actions after hoax from laughtervists, the Yes Men.
Does automation spell the end of capitalism?
Capitalism will not ‘automatically’ morph into some ‘postcapitalist’ or socialist system due to technology replacing the human workforce. As the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY explains, ending capitalism will require a conscious, collective action on the part of ‘the many’—the working class.
Ecosocialism: A vital synthesis
The capitalist system, driven at its core by the maximization of profit, regardless of social and ecological costs, is incompatible with a just and sustainable future. Ecosocialism offers a radical alternative that puts social and ecological well-being first.
An icy rally with burning demands
The survival of polar bears, we know, is sadly threatened. The survival of a more colorful bear species seems assured. HARIBO (an acronym of HAns RIegel BOnn), which makes those little “gold bears” sweets, was founded in a laundry room in 1920.
Toward a critique of political economy
There is no necessary trajectory to Marx’s writings, no reason his earlier writings had to lead to or culminate in Capital. However, as we look back from the vantage point of his critique of political economy, we can see the ways his thinking changed and how the elements of that critique emerged.
