Subjects Archives: Political Economy

In 1931 the British Colonial Office submitted a special report to the Council of the League of Nations on the “Progress of Iraq” in the previous decade. Since the First World War had ended with the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire and the confiscation of its territories, Iraq had been governed as a British mandate, under the supervision of the League.

Contrary to the dominant discourse, it is actually the case that the 54 African states finance developed countries and not the other way round.

The incoming Biden administration is under tremendous pressure to demonstrate better U.S. economic management. Trade negotiations normally take years to conclude, if at all. Unsurprisingly, lobbyists are already urging the next U.S. administration to quickly embrace and deliver a new version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Maas underscored that Berlin “does not need to talk about European sovereignty if that is understood as us (Germany) doing everything in future the way Washington wants.”

The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) has announced that weapons exports have risen by 2.8% to $175 billion in 2020. In their annual briefing on U.S. arms sales, the Pentagon and State Department cold-bloodedly described this increase as an “accomplishment.”

The peasants gathered on the Delhi border understand all these issues much more clearly than either Modi or the intelligentsia advocating a shift away from food grains. Ironically, it is the latter group who are suggesting that the peasants are ignoramuses!

Lecture given at the event: “The Collapse of the Unlawful State and the Recovery of Democracy”, held in La Paz, on December 14, 2020, in the auditorium of the Vice Presidency of the Plurinational State of Bolivia.

From the analysis of the struggle between the great powers for a lesser dependence on fossil fuels (which can shape their rivalries or push towards convergence between them), to the reminder of the need for every subject of oppression to develop its own ecological reflection. Daniel Tanuro gives us illuminating and pedagogical tools to confront the present social struggles and those that are to come.

The 2020 crisis we’ve endured isn’t an aberration of the system but, as Alex Callinicos argues, an aspect of its permanent crisis.

The recently announced EU-China principally agreed investment deal is a watershed moment, marking a first EU-China investment deal of its kind that would open the doors for the EU to make direct investment in China.

If there was one revolution that marked the beginning of the end of the colonial epoch and that inaugurated a new worker-led civilisation, it was the Haitian Revolution of 1804. Enslaved Africans defeated the four major European powers of the day, won their freedom, and declared an independent republic.

Water is essential for life, access to fresh water is a human right, and most importantly, water is sacred. Water is life.

John Green teaches us about Imperialism.

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.

This is most clearly shown in what is allowed by the powers that run the financial system.

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.

The kisans gathered around the Delhi border have unerringly put their fingers on the real issue confronting them, namely their very survival as peasants.

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.

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.

Recent reporting reinforces the false impression that the United States is threatened by Chinese and Russian expansionism.