Tag: Political economy
Borders as Capitalist Machinery
Zachary Levenson interviews Heba Gowayed about her work on the political economy of border securitization and migration.
On US Intervention and the Venezuelan State
Spectre editors Shireen Akram-Boshar and Charlie Post interview Federico Fuentes, a longtime Venezeula solidarity activist, as part of Spectre’s ongoing evaluation of the conjuncture in Venezuela.
Communes and Crisis
Manuel Casique Herrera responds to the recent Spectre interview with Geo Maher, arguing that Maher defends the Chavista regime by over-inflating the extent and power of the communes and ignoring political-economic trends before US sanctions. Closer attention to the Venezuelan state’s function as gate-keeper for ground rent for oil in light of global economic trends is necessary to make sense of the regime’s dynamics.
States of Indebtedness
Brandon Webb and Matthew Penney use Japanese state debt to show how both mainstream economics’ fiscal panic narratives and Modern Monetary Theory’s (MMT) closed economy model fail to account for how the monetization of public debt fuels speculative finance, redistributes wealth upward, and undermines social reproduction. A Marxist account of money does far better and points towards the need for a different, non-fetishized social form.
Non-natalism
Leslie Root shows how misguided it is for the left to accept pro-natalist positions. Worry about declining birth rates is based on a misinterpretation of the Total Fertility Rate, and minor social policies promoting higher birth rates will be met with pyrrhic defeat, producing backlash against minorities. The left can rely on better demographic data, and debates on the issue should be informed by reproductive justice, family abolition, and feminism.
The Crisis of Social Reproduction, Women’s Agency, and Feminism in China
Ralf Ruckus interviews Yige Dong on the crisis of social reproduction in China, highlighting left feminisms and expanding women’s agency.
The Continuing Relevance of Marx’s Capital
Charles Post reviews Sungur Savran and E. Ahmet Tonak, In the Tracks of Marx’s Capital: Debates in Marxian Political Economy and Lessons for 21st Century Capitalism.
Nationalism and Capitalism’s Ever-Spiraling Crisis
Through the lens of nationalism, Jacob Wilson evaluates Wolfgang Streeck and Jamie Merchant’s respective responses to capitalist crisis. Is left anticapitalist nationalism possible?
Abstract Models, Concrete Frictions
Samuel Fisher probes the limits of Søren Mau’s recent book Mute Compulsion.
On Economic Compulsion
Nate Holdren and Rob Hunter review Werner Bonefeld’s new book on the social constitution of economic compulsion in capitalism.