Socialdem. 21st Century

Internet libertarian personalities come and go, but I gather that one Stefan Molyneux is popular at the moment (his YouTube Channel is here).His video on Karl Marx is below, and it is somewhat amusing, even though not always accurate.[embedded content]Molyneux takes his critique of Marx from Paul Johnson’s Intellectuals (Harper & Row, New York, 1990), which is actually a very interesting analysis of Marx.In turn, Johnson relied on these sources, either directly or indirectly: Felix,...

In volume 1 of Capital in Chapter 25, Marx reproduces a selective quotation from William Gladstone on the condition of the working classes in England from a speech Gladstone gave in the House of Commons on 16 April 1863: “On April 16th, 1863, 20 years later, in the speech in which he introduced his Budget [sc. Gladstone said]: ‘From 1842 to 1852 the taxable income of the country increased by 6 per cent In the 8 years from 1853 to 1861 it had increased from the basis taken in 1853 by 20 per...

The issue of protectionism – and the related issue of industrial policy – is back on the political agenda, mainly because of the current US election season.Some very good books and articles relevant here are as follows: Amsden, Alice. 1989. Asia’s Next Giant: South Korea and Late Industrialization. Oxford University Press, New York.Amsden, Alice. 1990. “East Asia’s Challenge – to Standard Economics,” American Prospect 2 (Summer): 71–77.Bairoch, Paul. 1993. Economics and World History: Myths...

At the moment the British Labour party is in the news with claims of anti-Semitism in its ranks. On the one hand, I don’t doubt that the modern Labour party has certain people in it like Livingstone or former members like the odious George Galloway who have a disgraceful and disgusting relationship with Islamists, and who have a one-sided and unfair bias against Israel in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.But, despite all the hysteria, this is such an overblown issue. If one really wants to...

A brief but serviceable enough overview: “In the immediate post-war years France was in poor shape; wages remained at around half prewar levels, the winter of 1946–1947 did extensive damage to crops, leading to a reduction in the bread ration, hunger and disease remained rife and the black market continued to flourish. Germany was in an even worse position, but after 1948 things began to improve dramatically with the introduction of Marshall Aid—large scale American financial assistance...

Keynes visited the Soviet Union in the summer of 1925. He evidently tried hard to take a fair-minded view of Soviet Communism to please other people on the left, but just couldn’t do it.From his essay “A Short View of Russia” (1925): “Like other new religions, Leninism derives its power not from the multitude but from a small minority of enthusiastic converts whose zeal and intolerance make each one the equal in strength of a hundred indifferentists. .... Like other new religions, it...

Is this the future of Europe? Now (apparently) people in Germany can’t even engage in rude political satire against a quasi-authoritarian head of a foreign state…[embedded content]And, of course, it has backfired already:[embedded content]

I’ve covered the life of Karl Marx (1818–1883) in the series of posts here.Below is a chronology of Marx’s life to complement those posts, with some other major political, social and cultural events of the time: 1810s 5 February 1811 – the Prince of Wales George becomes the Prince Regent25 October 1760–29 January 1820 – reign of George III18 June 1815 – Battle of Waterloosummer of 1816 – famous summer at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva, Switzerland, where Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley...

Marx published volume 1 of Capital in German in 1867 (by the publisher Meissner of Hamburg), but this was the only volume of Capital, which was a proposed 4 volume work on economics, to be published in Marx’s lifetime. Volumes 2 and 3 were edited and published by Engels after the death of Marx. No English translation of volume 1 appeared in Marx’s lifetime either.In the summaries below, I have used these two translations of volume 1: Marx, Karl. 1906. Capital. A Critique of Political Economy...

The term “regressive left” was supposedly coined in 2012 by Maajid Nawaz to describe leftists who make shameful apologetics for Islamist religious bigotry and fanaticism, as Nawaz explains in the video below.[embedded content]The regressive left in 2016 is increasingly made up of millennials, who have been profoundly influenced by, and steeped in, the core ideas of Postmodernism, which they have no doubt learned at universities.However, many of these millennials do not consciously...