Subjects Archives: Political Economy

Videogames are everywhere.

Donald Trump is portrayed as a “populist” committed to average working-class people, but his policies benefit wealthy elites at the expense of everyone else. His administration includes 13 billionaires—including Elon Musk, the world’s richest oligarch—and he is cutting taxes on the rich and corporations while imposing a consumption tax on the poor through tariffs.

The imposition of the new U.S. tariff regime unveiled by President Trump yesterday is a declaration of economic war against the rest of the world.

ONE of the puzzling phenomena in world capitalism today is the bellicosity displayed by Europe vis-à-vis Russia.

It’s not April Fools day (1 April). But it might as well be as later today U.S. President Donald Trump announces another barrage of tariffs on imports into the U.S. in what Trump calls ‘Liberation Day’ and what America’s voice of big business and finance, the Wall Street journal, has called “the dumbest trade war in history.”

Rohan Grey, Assistant Professor of Law at Willamette University, joins Money on the Left to discuss his urgent new paper, “Digitizing the Fisc.” During our conversation, we recount the events surrounding Elon Musk & the DOGE boys’ unconstitutional takeover of the Treasury’s Bureau of Fiscal Service, while explicating the right-wing theory of the “unitary executive” that underwrites such actions.

At a summit held by a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, U.S. Vice President JD Vance gave a speech about globalization that made it clear that the West wants to keep poor, formerly colonized countries in the Global South trapped at the bottom of the global value chain, through monopolistic control of advanced technologies.

CounterSpin interview with Nancy Altman on Social Security attacks.

The immense cost to U.S. taxpayers of Trump’s assault on Yemen, which promises no results and primarily serves Israel’s interests, could easily reach the tens of billions at the current pace, especially considering the intensity of operations is much greater than under his predecessor.

Warmongering has reached fever pitch in Europe. It all started with the U.S. under Trump deciding that paying for the military ‘protection’ of European capitals from potential enemies was not worth it.

Citizenship by investment schemes drive up housing prices and do little to drive economic growth.

The theatrical events of the previous week between Volodymyr Zelensky, Donald Trump, and JD Vance have been grist for all manner of bourgeois media lies designed to obfuscate events.

In his address to Congress this week, President Trump boasted about ending “environmental restrictions that were making our country far less safe and totally unaffordable.”

The Trump administration’s volatility on foreign policy reveals internal divisions within Trumpism. But when threats and populism lose their momentum, the anti-communist hawks may get their way.

Michael Lavalette spoke to leading ecosocialist Ian Angus about capitalisms’ ecocide, Trump and what we need to do stop global heating.

Last month’s terminations cut employees who serve critical support roles on fires.

Slavoj Žižek, one of the Western thinkers who is familiar with Marxist terminology, published an article in Philosophy Salon on January 27, 2025, entitled “Why a Communist Must Assume that Life is Hell.”

A class consciousness among the working masses, one that takes the issue of race seriously, is critical at this moment. Still, the democrats are working to disrupt this effort to organize against the capitalist elite.

Money on the Left speaks with Raúl Carrillo, assistant professor of Law at Boston College, about gaming money. In this episode, we explore how companies like Microsoft, Sony, and Roblox are not only harming gamers but issuing “shadow money,” evading banking regulations meant to prevent structural problems.

The 2024 election between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump makes clear that the U.S. has two right-wing parties and no effective left-wing opposition.