Subjects Archives: Political Economy

THIS year’s Nobel Prize in economics (the Riksbank Prize to be more precise) has been awarded to three U.S.-based economists for their research into what promotes or hinders the growth of wealth among nations; and they assign a crucial role to institutions, arguing that western institutions like electoral democracy are conducive to growth.

The BRICS Cross-Border Payment Initiative (BCBPI) will use national currencies, instead of the U.S. dollar. Russia’s finance ministry and central bank released a report detailing plans to transform the international monetary and financial system.

The United States is waging an economic war against Venezuela.

New institutional economics has received another so-called Nobel prize, ostensibly for again claiming that good institutions and democratic governance ensure growth, development, equity & democracy.

Tech companies are leveraging the misery of Palestinian war victims for their own profit.

Several international organisations are now engaged in the business of measuring what they call “poverty”.

EXTINCTION REBELLION (XR) issued an ultimatum to insurance bosses today as the climate group gears up for a week of protests across the country.

This month we are re-publishing our conversation with Steven Attewell along with a new written transcript and episode graphic. Attewell is author of the incredible book, People Must Live by Work: Direct Job Creation in America from FDR to Reagan, published in 2018 by University of Pennsylvania Press. The book examines the history of job creation programs in the United States from the Great Depression to the Humphrey-Hawkins Act of 1978.

CounterSpin interview with Derek Seidman on insurance and climate.

George Lipsitz: The Danger Zone is Everywhere focuses on how unjust access to housing and health skews opportunities and life chances along racial lines. It argues that housing insecurity and poor health are key components of an unjust, destructive and deadly racial order. The book shows how the tort model of injury in law and the biomedical model of health work to occlude structural racism by treating socially produced injuries as personal problems.

On Monday, the Director of General Affairs of the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Carlos Pereira, announced that his country had requested to join BRICS+.

To track progress towards its goal of eradicating extreme poverty by 2030, the UN relies on World Bank estimates of the share of the world population that fall below the so-called International Poverty Line (IPL).  

Credit card data is extremely valuable for companies aiming to predict how people will spend money in the future. Knowing how much people spend, where and on what day says a lot about consumers’ financial situations.

The fact that the world economy has slowed down since the financial crisis of 2008 is beyond dispute.

As the presidential election closes in, Jamal Elaheebocus reports on working class strike actions across the USA.

The new aid comes as the U.S. claims it’s pushing for a ceasefire in Lebanon.

Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are not trapped in space, according to Boeing. The two expected to return to Earth from an eight-day mission on June 18.

The former Labour Party leader’s new foreword to Claire Provost and Matt Kennard’s book ‘Silent Coup’ outlines his thoughts on the growing power of the private sector over society.

A constant in two centuries of U.S. interference in the region is the obsession to destroy any sovereign or moderately progressive project.

Hundreds of Amazon drivers at a delivery station in Queens, New York, marched on their bosses today to announce they are joining the Teamsters.