Capitalism
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The virus that broke the camel’s back
14 February 2020 — theplanningmotivedotcom The economic difference between the current coronavirus and SARS (end of 2002) is this. In 2002 China was on the ascendancy whereas today the opposite is happening, China is in the descendancy. China is the heart of the world economy, and should this virus tip the economy into recession, it… Continue reading
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The climate and the fat tail risk
Last month at the gathering of the great but not good, the rich and infamous, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, US Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, formerly a hedge fund manager, was asked whether he agreed that calls by teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg for public and private-sector divestment from fossil fuel companies would… Continue reading
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Why Food Systems Are Breaking Down Across The World
Daniel Maingi works with small farmers in Kenya and belongs to the organisation Growth Partners for Africa. He remembers a time when his family would grow and eat a diversity of crops, such as mung beans, green grams, pigeon peas and a variety of fruits now considered ‘wild’. Continue reading
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Kleptotors and the DWP
By TruePublica Editor: You’ve just been unexpectedly transported to the alien nation of Kleptotors 186. The planet has substantial mineral wealth and food diversity and is populated with a sophisticated society arranged around the type of democratic principles we are used to back on Earth. Unfortunately, the wealth of the Kleptos has come about through… Continue reading
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The Limits of Capitalism By Laurie E. Adkin
The political activism of my youth was largely in solidarity with anti-colonial movements in Africa and Palestine, anti-US imperialist movements and dictatorships in Latin America, and solidarity-building between the labour and other social movements around a broad program of democratic, anti-capitalist reforms. In those struggles, there was always an assumption that social transformation could draw… Continue reading
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Fucked by Financialisation? Take Back Control & Save the World!
6 February 2020 — True Publica Continue reading
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Blue Acceleration: Capitalism’s growing assault on the oceans
Called the Great Acceleration, the speed-up is driving what Earth System scientists describe as “the most rapid transformation of the human relationship with the natural world in the history of humankind.”[1] It marks the beginning of a new historical and geological epoch, the Anthropocene — a time when “human activities have become so pervasive and… Continue reading
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How Capitalism’s Structural and Ideological Crisis Gives Rise to Neo-Fascism
Globalization sociologist William I. Robinson explains how global capitalism has been mired in a structural crisis since the 1970s, but especially since 2008, which has also led to a crisis of legitimacy, giving rise to neo-fascism around the world. (Inc. transcript) Continue reading
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Brexit & the British Working Class
Much has been written on Brexit, stage 1 of which occurred on 31 January. But a key point has been ignored: the UK’s departure from the European Union is due to a reactionary revolt by the British (mainly English) working class. This went against the established policy of the political elites, bourgeoisie, ruling class –… Continue reading
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The neocolonial system is not being dismantled
Janine Jackson interviewed Manuel Pérez-Rocha about NAFTA 2.0 for the January 24, 2020, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript. Continue reading
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US IMPERIALISM, THE GULF AND CHINA – A BROKEN WORLD ECONOMY
28 January 2020 — theplanningmotive.com MARX: SO OFTEN READ, SO SELDOM UNDERSTOOD. Finance Capital, Monopoly Capital and Imperialism Iranian General Qasem Soleimani’s assassination by the USA brings the issue of imperialism back to the fore. The General was not assassinated because he was planning future attacks. His fate was sealed on December 27th a week… Continue reading
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The value in GDP
At the recent ASSA 2020 conference there was a session on whether Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the ubiquitous measure of national output, was adequate as a gauge of “well-being or social welfare”. Various proposals have been put forward for attempting to measure social welfare, including “dashboards” of economic and social indicators as well as approaches… Continue reading
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2020 is hot, and it’s going to get much hotter
(London: January 24, 2020) The year is less than four weeks old, but scientists already know that carbon dioxide emissions will continue to head upwards – as they have every year since measurements began – leading to a continuation of the Earth’s rising heat. And they warn that the rise will be steeper than usual, partly because… Continue reading
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One Hundred Years: The Proletariat In Search of A Class
The super-indoctrinated, Trump-voting American working class, dulled by the mass media and the “American dream”,has changed very little since the crushing of the great textile strikes that swept The United States in the 1920s. Not an iota of class-consciousness has it absorbed. (Nor has it been explained and offered to all wage earners in sufficient… Continue reading
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UK: Here Comes the Breakdown Decade
In the decade from 2010 to 2020, a period in which the Conservative government oversaw the Great Recession and managed the slowest recovery from any economic slump on record – it heaped misery on millions in the shape of a failed policy called austerity. Continue reading
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Putin Calls for a New System Guided by the UN Charter… But Is It Possible? By Matthew Ehret
Anyone looking with sober eyes upon today’s world and the feeble economic and geopolitical underpinnings holding the system together must accept the fact that a new system WILL be created. Continue reading
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Selected Articles: Focus on the Davos World Economic Forum (2017-2020)
23 January 2020 — Global Research Trump Parties in Davos While Ordinary Americans Struggle to Make Ends Meet By Stephen Lendman, January 23 2020 The annual Davos billionaire’s ball — aka World Economic Forum — continues until Friday. Countless millions of US households face unacceptable choices between paying rent or servicing mortgages, seeking high-cost medical care when needed,… Continue reading
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Review: “One World Digital Dictatorship” by Soren Korsgaard – Digital Nightmare
Danish writer Soren Korsgaard (editor of Crime & Power) has written a very long and detailed account entitled “One World Digital Dictatorship” that describes the accelerating movement by both Western-style democracies and one-party states (notably China) towards world-wide Digital Dictatorship (Digital Imprisonment) involving mass data collection on everyone, mass surveillance, facial recognition-based tracking, crypotocurrency-based cashless… Continue reading
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World’s Super Rich Meet in Davos to Discuss the Climate Change Problem they Created
Research has shown that the people most responsible for a warming planet were disproportionately the same people attending the summit and an increasing number of observers see climate change, inequality and capitalism as bound together. Continue reading
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Can GM crops really “feed the world”? Challenging the Flawed Premise Behind Pushing GMOs into Indian Agriculture
A common claim is that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are essential to agriculture if we are to feed an ever-growing global population. Supporters of genetically engineered (GE) crops argue that by increasing productivity and yields, this technology will also help boost farmers’ incomes and lift many out of poverty. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 