Several weeks ago, with much media fanfare, the James Baker-Lee Hamilton Committee submitted to President George W. Bush its long-awaited, bipartisan report on the U.S. war in Iraq. On balance, the report provided Bush with a face-saving strategy for pulling out all U.S. combat forces by the beginning of 2008. The Baker-Hamilton report favors […]
Subjects Archives: Political Economy
How Can We Solve the Political Crisis in Lebanon? [Comment résoudre la crise politique au Liban?]
Annual Fundraising AppealFriends of MRZine and Monthly Review! The continuing existence of MRZine and Monthly Review depends on the support of our readers. Unlike many other publications, we make all new Monthly Review articles, as well as MRZine articles, available online, free of charge. We do so without drawing any advertising money at all from […]
Act Now to Save Net Neutrality
Annual Fundraising AppealFriends of MRZine and Monthly Review! The continuing existence of MRZine and Monthly Review depends on the support of our readers. Unlike many other publications, we make all new Monthly Review articles, as well as MRZine articles, available online, free of charge. We do so without drawing any advertising money at all […]
Marxism and Religion
Annual Fundraising Appeal Friends of MRZine and Monthly Review! The continuing existence of MRZine and Monthly Review depends on the support of our readers. Unlike many other publications, we make all new Monthly Review articles, as well as MRZine articles, available online, free of charge. We do so without drawing any advertising money at all […]
Naked Imperialism: An Interview with John Bellamy Foster
NAKED IMPERIALISM:The U.S. Pursuit of Global Dominance by John Bellamy FosterREAD EXCERPTBUY THIS BOOK John Bellamy Foster’s Naked Imperialism: The U.S. Pursuit of Global Dominance was published by Monthly Review Press in May 2006. It consists of essays written between September 2001 and September 2005, addressing the origins of today’s undisguised imperialism, led by the […]
A Thing with Transcendental Qualities: Money as a Social Relationship in Capitalism
An Introduction to Marx’ Notion of Money What is money? This question hardly plays a role in everyday commerce. What matters is that there is enough. Bourgeois economic theories reduce money to its economic function. But the ubiquity of money is fateful and presupposes certain conditions. Hence, the critique of financial markets is incomplete when […]
When Economists Didn’t Buy the Free Market. . . : An Interview with Michael Perelman
RAILROADING ECONOMICS: The Creation of the Free Market Mythology by Michael PerelmanBUY THIS BOOKRead Michael Perelman’s blog: UNSETTLING ECONOMICS: A Progressive Look at Economics and the Rest of the Screwed Up World. Michael Perlman is a longtime professor of economics at California State University, Chico. A prolific author, his newest book is titled Railroading Economics: […]
Globalization Risks and Costs
Critics have exposed how globalization’s benefits have been unequally distributed around the world. Many of the world’s poorer regions have become poorer still in relation to the regions that gained. And within regions, it turns out that globalization often worsens wealth and income inequalities. However, critics admit and defenders boast that at least for some […]
All the Economics You Need to Know in One Lesson
CHEAP MOTELS AND A HOTPLATE: An Economist’s Travelogue by Michael D. Yates ORDER THIS BOOK This essay complements my forthcoming book: Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate: an Economist’s Travelogue (Monthly Review Press). We Meet an Economist Karen and I were hiking in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on the Atalaya Mountain Trail, which begins […]
Bad Faith and the Common Good: The Road to Civic Republicanism
“Philosophy always comes on the scene too late.” — G.W.F. Hegel1 “They say we don’t stand for anything. We do stand for anything.” — Sen. Barack Obama2 For years it’s been a political commonplace to observe that the Republicans represent the party of ideas while the Democrats are the stupid party. Even Bush-phobic Democrats like […]
Michael Perelman in Sacramento
Railroading Economics: The Creation of the Free Market Mythology Monday, October 16, 2006, 7 PM Sierra 2 Center, Room 10 2791 24th Street, Sacramento Michael Perelman‘s new book, Railroading Economics: The Creation of the Free Market Mythology, examines the rhetoric of conventional economic theory, which assumes a “pure capitalism of perfect competition.” He explores how […]
Brazil: What Is at Stake in the Second Round [Brasil: Lo que está en juego en la segunda vuelta]
Nadie puede ser neutro, nadie puede ser equidistante, nadie puede ser indiferente Lo que está en juego en la segunda vuelta no es apenas si Petrobras va a ser privatizada — como afirmó el asesor de Alckmin, Mendonça de Barros a la revista Exame — y, si con ella, también el Banco de Brasil, la […]
It’s Not Race or Class — It’s Race and Class: An Interview with Roderick Bush
WE ARE NOT WHAT WE SEEM: Black Nationalism and Class Struggle in the American Century by Roderick D. BushBUY THIS BOOK Roderick Bush is an Associate Professor in the Sociology Department at St. John’s University in New York. He is the author of We Are Not What We Seem: Black Nationalism and Class Struggle in […]
Class Struggle and Socialist Revolution in the Philippines: Understanding the Crisis of U.S. Hegemony, Arroyo State Terrorism, and Neoliberal Globalization
Prodded by Amnesty International (AI), the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Asian Human Rights Commission, Reporters Without Borders, and other international organizations, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recently cobbled a group to look into the allegations of massive human rights violations — over 729 victims of extrajudicial killings, and 180 involuntary “disappearances,” by the latest count — during her […]
Just Sign on the Dotted Line: Iraqi Oil and Production Sharing Agreements
“A critical component of the overall strategy is to contain expenditures within revenues and available financing, by prioritizing expenditures, controlling the wage and pensions bill, reducing subsidies on petroleum products, and expanding the participation of the private sector in the domestic market for petroleum products. . . . The authorities have recently increased prices of […]
