Tag: Economics

Rob Urie Quote About Differences on the Political Left

Quote by Rob Urie:

“Differences on ‘the left’ have been between the chide that we need better management of empire versus the counter-argument that capitalist imperialism is the problem that needs to be solved. The charge, addressed below, that Donald Trump represents a ‘unique threat’ falls out on the ‘better management of empire’ side of this divide. The subtext is a contested analogy regarding the genesis of European fascism in the twentieth century. To state: the base difference between left and right political analysis has historically been a focus on society and institutions (left) versus individuals and ‘character’ (right).

“As a child (and opponent) of the Vietnam war, I’ve argued for most of my now substantial years that assessments of the uniqueness of the Nazi threat depends on which side of American power you exist on. The horror of Nazi atrocities can’t be understated. But neither can the basic outline of American history, from slavery and genocide against the indigenous peoples to the people, friends, families, communities and nations destroyed. From Vietnam to Central America to Iraq to the present, I’ve met more than a few American ‘heroes’ who would be understood to be the moral equivalents of Nazi concentration camp commanders but for which side of power they reside on.

“Following WWII, an argument was developed in support of the ‘uniquely evil’ nature of Nazism whose very purpose was to get past American history up to that point. And it depended on ideological explanations of history, purposely leaving aside the economic circumstances behind the rise of Nazism so as to avoid capitalist culpability for the Great Depression. This theory, tied to right-wing economics, is today known as ‘neoliberalism.’”

“The Open Letter and the DNC”

Bonus link: “The Two Totalitarianisms”

Vijay Prashad – After Morales Ousted in Coup, the Lithium Question Looms Large in Bolivia

Link to an article by Vijay Prashad:

“After Morales Ousted in Coup, the Lithium Question Looms Large in Bolivia”

 

Bonus links: “The Coup in Bolivia Has Everything to Do With the Screen You’re Using to Read This” and “In Moments of Crisis, Behind Every Moderate Liberal, There’s a Fascist” and “The Bolivian Coup Is Not a Coup—Because US Wanted It to Happen” and “A Week After the Coup in Bolivia, There’s Still No Proof of Electoral Fraud” and “Western Media Whitewash Bolivia’s Far-Right Coup” and “A Letter to Intellectuals Who Deride Revolutions in the Name of Purity”

Joan Roelofs – Military Keynesianism Marches On

Link to an article by Joan Roelofs:

“Military Keynesianism Marches On”

 

Bonus links: “The Left Hand and the Right Hand of the State” and Modern Money Green Economics for a New Era and “Documents Expose How Hollywood Promotes War on Behalf of the Pentagon, CIA and NSA” and “American Sniper?” and “culture industry” and “How the U.S. Military Undermines the American Economy” and Super Imperialism and Review of The Global Minotaur and “The Trillion Dollar Silencer”

Review of Value and Crisis by Alfredo Saad-Filho

Link to a review by Fabian Van Onzen of the book Value and Crisis: Essays on Labour, Money and Contemporary Capitalism (2019) by Alfredo Saad-Filho:

Review of Value and Crisis

 

Bonus links: Review of Making Money and “How Decades of Neoliberalism Led to the Era of Right-Wing Populism” (this article reviews another book on the same topic but is rather questionably historicist, though it is absolutely correct to note that “all policies — whether statist or neoliberal — are normative”) and “When Socialist Hungary Went Neoliberal” (“neoliberalism represents a class project, aiming not so much to ‘restore’ the power of economic elites . . . but instead to re-establish the conditions for capital accumulation following the global crisis of capital accumulation (1968-75).  . . . as neoliberalism gradually gained traction amongst ruling classes across the world it has come to represent the current phase of global capitalism. In this regard, neoliberalism is, among others, characterized by a structural reorientation of the state towards export-oriented, financialized capital, open-ended commitments to market-like governance systems, privatization and corporate expansion, a deep aversion to social collectives and the progressive redistribution of wealth on the part of ruling classes, etc.”) (note that this interviewee makes much-contested if not outright dubious claims about “Soviet-style state capitalism” and “the Stalinist myth that the Soviet bloc regimes were somehow ‘post-capitalist’ societies”, that is, he calls the former USSR “state capitalist” rather than communist/socialist)

Intan Suwandi – Outsourcing Exploitation

Link to an article by Intan Suwandi:

“Outsourcing Exploitation: Global Labor-Value Chains”

The key seems to be that, at a minimum, contracting with outsourced suppliers on terms that are (objectively) unreasonable should force the large contracting party to bear responsibility for foreseeable problems — much like old fraudulent conveyance laws.  Suwandi’s article nails the problem, though this article provides only a cursory explanation of why Global South suppliers would agree to such an arrangement, something that others have explained more fully:   Slavoj Žižek Quote About Domination, “Multiculturalism, or, the Cultural Logic of Multinational Capitalism”, Ruy Mauro Marini‘s “Brazilian ‘Interdependence’ and Imperialist Integration” (“sub-imperialism” involves peripheral economies collaborating actively with the imperialist expansion of core economies like the United States, assuming in that expansion the position of a key nation), “Malcolm Describes the Difference Between the ‘House Negro’ and the ‘Field Negro.’”.  See also The Fissured Workplace

Paul Le Blanc – Today’s Struggle for a Green New Deal

Link to an article by Paul Le Blanc:

“Today’s Struggle for a Green New Deal: Lessons from the Freedom Budget of the 1960s”

Bonus links: “What the New Deal Can Teach us About Winning a Green New Deal: Part I” and “What the New Deal Can Teach Us About Winning a Green New Deal: Part III—the First New Deal” and “System Change, Class War, and the WW2 Economic Conversion Experience” and “When the FBI Targeted the Poor People’s Campaign”