Tag Archives: capitalism

Commodification is of the essence of capital. It can be a force for good, as proponents of the price mechanism as the solution to all problems claim, or not, as Marx & Engels objected based on alienation. Chris Dillow comments.Stumbling and MumblingON COMMODIFICATIONChris Dillow | Investors Chronicle

In an interview with ProMarket, CUNY Graduate Center economist Branko Milanovic discussed the differences and similarities between US-style and China-style capitalism and explained why, without major reforms, liberal capitalism could lead to plutocracy. "Could lead" or "has led"? While I generally like Branko Milanovic's work, I think his analysis of "capitalism" is fundamentally misguided since it is based on a Western-biased view of economics and political theory.  So-called...

Are the faults of capitalism curable, or are they instead symptoms of a chronic disease? This is the question posed by Martin Wolf: What we increasingly seem to have…is an unstable rentier capitalism, weakened competition, feeble productivity growth, high inequality and, not coincidentally, an increasingly degraded democracy. There is much to admire in this piece. But I fear it understates the problem with capitalism.... Falling rate of profit?Stumbling and MumblingThe trouble with...

Should be "neoliberalism" instead of "liberalism."New StatesmanWhy is “millennial socialism” on the rise? Because liberalism is failing Lea Ypi

Inequality constricts growth by: Obstructing the supply of people and ideas into our economy and limiting opportunity for those not already at the top, which slows productivity growth over time Subverting the institutions that manage the market, making our political system ineffective and our labor markets dysfunctional Distorting demand through its effects on consumption and investment, which both drags down and destabilizes short- and long-term growth in economic output Capitalism...

More than a decade after the global financial crisis, macroeconomists have failed to absorb three crucial sets of lessons. Their models are still struggling – and mostly failing – to cope with disruptive change, and with the fact that both balance sheets and inequality matter.… Stating the obvious but it that most at the top don't get it yet. Project SyndicateWhat Economists Still Need to LearnMark Cliffe is Chief Economist and Head of Global Research of the ING Group. Also of interest...

In the same way that Capital in the Twenty-First Century transformed the way economists look at inequality, Piketty’s new book Capital and Ideology will transform the way political scientists look at their own field. ProMarket — The blog of the Stigler Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of BusinessThomas Piketty’s New Book Brings Political Economy Back to Its Sources Branko Milanovic | Visiting Presidential Professor at City University of New York Graduate Center and senior...

Modern Europe’s political structure is based on the supposition that capitalism and democracy can be compatible – so the most urgent challenge of our times is reconciling the two. In short, economic liberalism and political liberal generate paradoxes that require a comprehensive worldview (systematic set of presumptions) that balances social, economic and political liberalism for Western liberalism to survive. New StatesmanCapitalism vs democracy: Europe’s hard problem Mark...

What cutting edge economic anthropology and economic history shows is that prior to the dawn of the capitalist era it would have been nonsensical to refer to such a thing as an “economy” and no one ever did. The reason for this, quite simply, is that while economic reproduction is an existential facet of all existing human societies it had always been intermeshed with other social practices–culture, religion, ideology, politics, and so on–and indistinguishable from them. Only under...

Lesson in economic history. Podcast and transcript.Socialist AppealFreedom and slavery: the birth of capital Josh Holroyd