Tag: Economics

Matt Bruenig – Libertarianism’s Battle With History

Link to an article by Matt Bruenig:

“Libertarianism’s Battle With History”

Selected Quote:

“as much as market fanatics tried, they never could succeed in casting the economy as something separate from or above social order. Instead, what we saw (and what we see in developing countries today) is a constant rhythm of a double movement. In the first move, market mechanisms expand into new areas of social life, and in the second move, people fight to check this movement insofar as it is utterly ruinous to the functioning of a human society.”

Polanyi offers a much less robust (and more academic) analysis than Veblen or Bourdieu.

Jonah Birch – The Many Lives of François Mitterrand

Link to an article by Jonah Birch:

“The Many Lives of François Mitterrand”

Quote:

“the political power of the capitalist class flows not just from what capital can do, but from what it can choose not to do — invest. It is its control over the investment function, not its collective organizations, that is the key source of capitalists’ power in the political sphere: since, in a capitalist economy, investment is the prerequisite for growth, employment, and tax revenue, policymakers will always have an incentive to prioritize the demands of business confidence over all other considerations.”