Alienated labour and disposable timeMarx’s remarkable, yet largely neglected statement that “[t]he whole development of wealth rests on the creation of disposable time” and his subsequent analysis of the relationship between disposable time, superfluous products, and surplus value suggests an alternative analysis of alienation that identifies disposable time itself as that which is appropriated and confronts the labourer as alien property. Marx came close to making such an analysis explicit...

by Steve Roth Originally Published at Wealth Economics Wealth concentration got just a tiny bit less extreme. The bottom 50% of American wealth holders got richer in the last three years: in 2021, ’22, and ’23 — not just in absolute dollar terms, but relative to richer folks. The percentage growth was faster than it was for wealthier groups, so wealth inequality went down — but only by a smidge. The first thing to know is that the Bottom...

There are many comments about the increasing costs of automobile insurance. In Michigan, once the no fault insurance was dropped and catastrophic injury insurance was cut, the care of long-term care was edecimated. Many people with serious lifetime injuries were left to fend on their own after reduced payments to caregivers. Past payments to medical was cut in half. The reserve funds were cut also when reimbursed back to customers. I guess what I...

from Dean Baker New York Times columnist Peter Coy did a piece yesterday questioning the existence of a gap between productivity growth and the typical worker’s pay. This gap was established decades ago by my friends and former colleagues at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). The fact that it is now being questioned says a lot about economics and even more about politics in this country. First, let me be clear, my purpose is not at all to beat up on Coy. I’ve known him for many years...

Join 10,000 Other Truth-Seekers by Downloading my new 'Funny Money' Bundle for Free at https://new.stevekeenfree.com -- "The tensions between our basic humanity and the capitalist machine can transform society over time." Dive deep with Steve Keen as he unpacks Karl Marx's revolutionary ideas and their relevance in today's world. Discover how Marx's concept of dialectics, and his critique of value in capitalist societies, still hold powerful insights into our modern economic...

Taking a longer view, over the last two decades, the fact that the value of the US dollar has been broadly unchanged, while the US dollar’s share of global reserves has declined, indicates that central banks have indeed been shifting gradually away from the dollar.BNEIMF: Dollar’s "stealth erosion" in global reserves by other currenciesSerkan Arslanalp for the IMF, Barry Eichengreen, Chima Simpson-Bell

May CPI continued to be all about shelter  – by New Deal democrat Consumer prices in May showed no inflation at all, as a decline in gas prices helped the headline number come in unchanged. YoY inflation decelerated -0.1% to 3.3% – continuing in the narrow 3.0%-3.4% range it has been in for the last year. The bottom line remains that almost the entire inflation “problem” is with shelter, which increased 0.4% again, while the YoY rate...

To the death toll of the violence in Gaza, around 15.000 additional deaths of infants and children between 1 and 5 have to be added. This is a rough and, in my opinion, a lower-bound estimate. However, the calculations are based on robust information, and sizeable additional mortality in infants and young children in Gaza is real. Next to the direct victims of war, there are indirect victims who die because of lack of proper medical care or because of harsh circumstances. Here, I´ll...

Apparently the administration is letting Ukraine hit military targets in Russia, though still with some restrictions.  This is way overdue.  It seems clear that Russia under Putin is an expansionist power.  Only a decisive defeat will prevent brutal ethnic cleansing in Ukraine.  Defeat may also lead Putin to refrain from further aggression against his neighbors, and even get him to accept a vision of Russia as an ordinary European country that...

 Inversion Marx stated repeatedly in the Grundrisse that capital inverts the relationship between necessary and superfluous labour time. Capital both creates disposable time and expropriates it in the form of surplus value, reversing the nature-imposed priority of necessity before superfluity and making the performance of necessary labour conditional on the production of surplus value. Marx’s analysis of this inversion bears unmistakeable traces of Ludwig Feuerbach’s critique in The Essence...