Thursday, 26 January 2023 — Media Lens
People in power get nervous when the population’s trust in national institutions plummets. It has often been a precursor of significant social unrest, even revolutions.
Category: Capitalism
90% of world’s people to face combined extreme heat and drought
Monday, M9 January, 2023 — Origin: Climate & Capitalism
Compound threats will most severely affect poor people and rural areas
More than 90% of the world’s population is projected to face increased risks from the compound impacts of extreme heat and drought, potentially widening social inequalities as well as undermining the natural world’s ability to reduce CO2 emissions in the atmosphere — according to a study from Oxford University’s School of Geography.
THE DAYS OF THE US TECH LEVIATHANS ARE DRAWING TO A CLOSE
Sunday, 8 January 2023 — ThePlanningmotivedotcom
The advent of the information age – the fusion of the internet plus computing power plus advanced algorithms, takes off at the end of the 1980s. Its development within the USA and its strategic economic importance allows the USA to once more dominate the global value chain. As a result, US Tech corporations become monopolies harvesting super profits. But this 30-year reign could be ending
the-tech-leviathans-stumbles.pdf
Watch: Introducing Geopolitical Economy Report: Multipolarista is evolving
Sunday, 8 January 2023 — Multipolarista
We are excited to announce the creation of the independent media outlet Geopolitical Economy Report – an evolution and expansion of Multipolarista. Our team will be growing, and we have exciting new projects planned, including a regular show with economists Michael Hudson and Radhika Desai.
Editor-in-chief Ben Norton explains the changes (and the continuity).
SDG7: The Impossible Energy Transformation
Friday, 6 January 2023 — Unlimited Hangout
The alleged purpose of the United Nation’s (UN’s) Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) is to “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.” The real impacts of its implementation couldn’t be more different. Renewable energy is neither renewable nor sustainable and the SDG7 energy transition is only making the problem of energy poverty worse.
“If there is to be a livable future, it will be a future offline”
Sunday, 1 January 2023 — Canadian Dimension
Jonathan Crary’s new book excoriates the digital world of late capitalism
Review by Owen Schalk
Scorched Earth: Beyond the Digital Age to a Post-Capitalist World
Jonathan Crary
Verso, 2022
At this point, it is a commonplace that the techno-optimist promises of the Internet’s early proponents were either naïve or lies.
Claims of the system’s power to connect far-flung individuals and enrich one’s social life are risible. In the West, at least, the Internet’s primary effect has been to dissipate social energies into simulated flickers of friendship, comradery, or antagonism that more often than not ripple into nothingness before any deeper human experience can take root, rendering a large chunk of one’s time and attention pointless beyond the fact that it can be monetized to the benefit of seemingly omnipresent tech companies.
Ecosocialist Bookshelf: The Best of 2022
Saturday, 31 December 2023 — — Origin: Climate & Capitalism
Ian Angus selects his favorite red and green books from the past year
Ecosocialist Bookshelf is a monthly column, hosted by Ian Angus. Books described here may be reviewed at length in future. Inclusion of a book does not imply endorsement, or that C&C agrees with everything (or even anything!) these books say.
Drug regulation – How does it work?
Saturday, 31 December 2022 — Dr Malcom KenDrick
Before laying into the drug regulators, and their inexorable move towards the dark side, I thought I should try to explain a bit more about who decides what drugs should be used, and for what conditions.
Forecast 2023: the impending slump
Thursday, 29 December 2022 — Michael Roberts Blog
At the end of every year, I attempt to make a forecast on what will happen in the world economy in the next year. Of course, forecasts are wrapped in error, given the many variables involved that drive economies. Weather forecasts are still difficult to make and here meteorologists are dealing with physical events and not (at least directly) with human actions. Nevertheless, weather forecasts up to three days ahead are now pretty accurate. And longer term climate change forecasts have been broadly borne out over the last few decades. So if we consider that economics is a science (albeit a social science), and I do, then making predictions is part of testing theories and evidence in economics too.
UK: A WINTER OF DISCONTENT OR DISORGANIZATION
Friday, 23 December 2022 — theplanningmotivedotcom
The number of strikes has intensified. However, there is no attempt yet to bring the strikes together in one general public sector strike. Nothing less will suffice to break the bosses resolve. This article explains why. The capitalists in England have their back to the wall or is it the cliff?!
edinburg-recmmendations-for-the-city.pdf
Books of the year
Thursday, 22 December 2022 — Michael Roberts Blog
Every year at this time, I look back at any books that I have reviewed. I’ll start with Bradford DeLong’s book, Slouching towards Utopia, because this was considered the best economic history book of the year.
The US rate of profit in 2021
Monday, 19 December 2022 — Michael Roberts Blog
Every year, I analyse the US rate of profit on capital. This is because the US data is the best and most comprehensive to use and because the US is the most important capitalist economy, often setting the scene for trends in global capitalism. We now have the data for 2021 (that’s as far as the official national data go).
Degrowth and the end of capitalism
Saturday, 17 December 2022 — Origin: Climate & Capitalism
Book review: A powerful polemic against capitalism’s planetary destruction, and an engaging look at the degrowth movement
Matthias Schmelzer, Andrea Vetter and Aaron Vansintjan
THE FUTURE IS DEGROWTH
A Guide to a World Beyond Capitalism
Verso, 2022
reviewed by Martin Empson
Dutch farmers battle technocratic forces driving them into oblivion
Thursday, 8 December 2022 — Grayzone UK
Dutch farmers are in open struggle against a cartel of multinational corporations, Davos-aligned parties and NGO’s seeking control over the global food supply. “They are sweeping the culture from the land,” a farmer laments.
Ecosocialist Bookshelf, December 2022
Saturday, 10 December 2022 — — Origin: Climate & Capitalism
Six important new books on fungi and racism and building socialism and wheat and more
Ecosocialist Bookshelf is a monthly column, hosted by Ian Angus. Books described here may be reviewed at length in future. Inclusion of a book does not imply endorsement, or that C&C agrees with everything (or even anything!) these books say.
Rich nations doubly responsible for greenhouse gas emissions
Tuesday, 6 December 2022 — JOMO
Hezri A. Adnan and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 06, 2022 (IPS). Natural flows do not respect national boundaries. The atmosphere and oceans cross international borders with little difficulty, as greenhouse gases (GHGs) and other fluids, including pollutants, easily traverse frontiers.
Cleaning the Augean stables (Part I)
Friday, 25 November 2022 – Dr Malcolm Kendrick
Peer-review: Time to get rid of it
‘There seems to be no study too fragmented, no hypothesis too trivial, no literature citation too biased or too egotistical, no design too warped, no methodology too bungled, no presentation of results too inaccurate, too obscure, and too contradictory, no analysis too self-serving, no argument too circular, no conclusions too trifling or too unjustified, and no grammar and syntax too offensive for a paper to end up in print.’ – Drummond Rennie.
Somewhat damning?
Behind The Crypto Scam – “Complete Absence Of Trustworthy Financial Information”
Friday, 18 November 2022 – Moon of Alabama
Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism, who called everything crypto ‘prosecution futures‘, provides the latest FTX bankruptcy filing:
John J. Ray III, the newly appointed CEO of bankrupt crypto player FTX’s sprawling empire who played the same role in the then-biggest-evah Enron bankruptcy and other big corporate implosions, filed his formal initial assessment with the Delaware bankruptcy court in the form of declaration, embedded below.
As expected the FTX and the companies related to it are a huge criminal mess.
Fossil Drugs: Antibiotics as the fossil fuels of medicine
Friday, 18 November 2022 — MROnline
By Leslee Lazar
The discovery of antibiotics was one of humanity’s greatest achievements. But we didn’t invent them. Long before humans, microorganisms in soil evolved these molecules. It was not until the mid-twentieth century, however, that these molecules were isolated by humans and mass-produced for medicine.
Food, Farming, and Africa: An Open Letter to Bill Gates
thursday, 17 November 2022 — Origin: Climate & Capitalism
Billionaire Arrogance
Food sovereignty activists challenge a wealthy white man’s flawed assumptions, hubris, and ignorance
Source: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-NC-SA
We, 50 organizations focused on food sovereignty and justice worldwide, want you to know there is no shortage of practical solutions and innovations by African farmers and organizations. We invite you to step back and learn from those on the ground. —Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa
The New Dark Age 