Capitalism
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The end of dollar dominance?
Last summer when the US fled Afghanistan, I wrote a post on the history of US dollar dominance I argued then that the US dollar would remain the dominant world currency for the foreseeable future, but that it was in relative decline compared to other currencies, precisely because US imperialism has been in relative decline compared… Continue reading
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UN report names the world’s most polluted places
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment has identified the most polluted places on earth. In his annual report to the UN Human Rights Council, David Boyd describes these places as Sacrifice Zones, a term originally used for areas made uninhabitable by nuclear weapons tests. Continue reading
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Capitalism’s fallen angels
In several previous posts, I have highlighted what are called ‘zombie’ companies (companies whose regular profits do not even cover the cost of servicing their outstanding debts) and so must, to paraphrase former BoE governor Mark Carney, depend on the kindness of their creditors”. An OECD study found that such zombies take up a frighteningly large part of the economy.… Continue reading
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Ecosocialist Bookshelf, February 2022
Thursday, 17 February 2022 — Origin: Climate & Capitalism Reading matter for reds and greens: Five new books and five recent reviews Ecosocialist Bookshelf is a monthly Climate & Capitalism feature, 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… Continue reading
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Poorest people hit hardest by heat stress
People with lower incomes are exposed to heat waves for longer periods of time compared to higher income people, due to a combination of location and access to heat adaptations like air conditioning. This inequality is expected to rise as temperatures increase, new research shows. Continue reading
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MMT, Marglin and Marx
Let me start this post by quoting Noah Smith, liberal economist and Bloomberg journalist from his blog on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT): “The New York Times (NYT) just came out with a big glowing writeup of MMT, entitled “Time for a Victory Lap*”. This article aroused the anger of just about every macroeconomist on Twitter, and with good reason… Continue reading
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The Great Covid Class War
On January 19, 2020, Washington state reported the first US case of coronavirus. By the end of March, 245 million Americans were under stay-at-home restrictions to “flatten the curve.” Mainstream news terrorized the public with exponential graphs, threats of a medical supply shortage, and displays of hygiene theater. Appeals to science were weaponized to enforce conformity, and the media portrayed anti-lockdown… Continue reading
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The sugar runs out
At the beginning of January, I posted my economic forecast for the world economy in 2022. I argued that, although the major capitalist economies were likely to expand during 2022, real GDP, investment and income growth was likely to be much slower than the fast rebound in 2021 from the global pandemic slump of 2020. Last… Continue reading
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The “American Experiment” is a Savage Nightmare
In announcing his retirement from the absurdly powerful U.S. Supreme Court during a press event at the White House, the gabby octogenarian Stephen Breyer recently held up his pocket copy of the U.S. Constitution and waxed sentimental on the greatness of the nation he loves. Breyer said that the USA was a great democratic “experiment”… Continue reading
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Uneven Earth’s January 2022 Readings
Once a month, we put together a list of stories we’ve been reading: news you might’ve missed or crucial conversations going on around the web. We focus on environmental justice, radical municipalism, new politics, political theory, and resources for action and education. Continue reading
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Europe and the UK’s vast shipments of banned, bee-killing ‘neonics’
By Crispin Dowler: 10 minute read: The European Union and the UK are shipping thousands of tonnes of ‘neonicotinoid’ pesticides (neonics) to poorer countries, years after banning the chemicals from their own farms to protect bees, a new Unearthed and Public Eye investigation has found. Continue reading
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World’s farms at a breaking point
Almost 10% of the 8 billion people on earth are already undernourished with 3 billion lacking healthy diets, and the land and water resources farmers rely on stressed to “a breaking point.” And by 2050 there will be 2 billion more mouths to feed, warns a new report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Continue reading
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“The World’s Most Evil Company” May Lose a Few Court Fights—But Will Keep On Poisoning and Killing Millions of People with Its Carcinogenic Pesticide ‘Roundup’
Monsanto (now part of Bayer AB) had to pay $78 million in 2018 and $10 billion more in 2020 to settle 100,000 cancer lawsuits. But that won’t stop a company whose 2021 revenues will top $49.991 billion…which is why Roundup is still being profitably sprayed in 160 countries around the world. Continue reading
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Arise, Pandemic Profiteers
History’s annals are filled with war profiteers and hustlers for the opportunistic return. They come in the form of hoarders, arms manufacturers and wily business folk making a steal on slaughter and mayhem. But the other conflict – that of battling a pandemic – has also shown that profits exist for those willing to exploit… Continue reading
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The Surprise Ending
Humanity’s collective awakening will unfold in ways that nobody is anticipating, for the same reasons an individual’s awakening always unfolds in ways they can’t anticipate. Continue reading
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Chris Hedges: America’s New Class War
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY (Scheerpost) — There is one last hope for the United States. It does not lie in the ballot box. It lies in the union organizing and strikes by workers at Amazon, Starbucks, Uber, Lyft, John Deere, Kellogg, the Special Metals plant in Huntington, West Virginia, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, the Northwest Carpenters Union, Kroger,… Continue reading
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Climate scientists: Ban solar geoengineering
The following open letter was issued by an international coalition of prominent scientists and governance scholars on January 17, 2022. It calls for an international treaty to outlaw attempts to reduce global heating by blocking sunlight from reaching earth. Continue reading
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Dangerous Gaps: Knowledge, Action, and Justice
The following essay was published on the website of This View of Life (TVOL) , which brings to bear the views of science and evolutionary biology on a series of global challenges increasingly overwhelming the capabilities of civilizational modernity. A series of related articles can be found on the TVOL website. Continue reading
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Against Enclosure – The Commoners Fight Back
In 1542, Henry VIII gave his friend and privy councilor Sir William Herbert a gift: the buildings and lands of a dissolved monastery, Wilton Abbey near Salisbury. Herbert didn’t need farmland, so he had the buildings torn down, expelled the monastery’s tenants, and physically destroyed an entire village. In their place he built a large… Continue reading
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ASSA 2022: part two – the heterodox
In this second post on the annual ASSA economics conference, I look at the papers and presentations made by radical and heterodox economists. These presentations are mostly under the auspices of the Union of Radical Political Economics (URPE) sessions, but the Association of Evolutionary Economics also provided an umbrella for some sessions. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 