The Bichler and Nitzan Archives
Not a member yet
759 research outputs found
Sort by
Evidence for a Power Theory of Personal Income Distribution
Get PDFThis paper proposes a new ‘power theory’ of personal income distribution. Contrary to the standard assumption that income is proportional to productivity, I hypothesize that income is most strongly determined by social power, as indicated by one’s position within an institutional hierarchy. While many theorists have proposed a connection between personal income and power, this paper is the first to quantify this relation. I propose that power can be quantified in terms of the number of subordinates below one’s position in a hierarchy. Using this definition, I find that relative income within firms scales strongly with hierarchical power. I also find that hierarchical power has a stronger effect on income than any other factor for which data is available. I conclude that this is evidence for a power theory of personal income distribution
Arms and Oil in the Middle East: A Biography of Research
Get PDFFROM THE ARTICLE: 'During the late 1980s, we printed a series of working papers, offering a new approach to the political economy of Israel and wars in the Middle East. Our approach in these papers rested on three new concepts. It started by identifying the Weapondollar-Petrodollar Coalition – an alliance of armament firms, oil companies and financial institutions based mostly in the United States – whose interests, we posited, converged in the Middle East. It continued by arguing that the interests of this coalition were best measured by its differential accumulation – i.e., by its performance relative to other large firms. And it concluded by showing that variations in differential accumulation predicted subsequent Middle East energy conflicts (our term). At the time, the papers seemed unpublishable. They were politically unaligned (neither neoclassical nor Marxist). They were non-disciplinary (belonging to neither economics nor politics – or any other social science, for that matter). And they were written in non-academic language (i.e., simply, clearly and to the point). But they made a scientific prediction: the Middle East, they argued, was ripe for another round of military hostilities and oil crisis. And when the 1990-91 Gulf War broke out, their theoretical frame-work suddenly sounded very relevant’
Review of 'Capital as Power: A Study of Order and Creorder'
Get PDFFROM THE REVIEW: I don't think there is a more valuable book in my collection. While many economists have criticized the entirety of neo-classical economics, and many have offered various adjustments, none have offered an alternative theory of value which is a fundamental block of economics. Everything is built around it and [the book] is the first to offer a new theory in over 50 years
Ontology of Finance Redux
Get PDF“Ontology of Finance Redux” is an abridged version of Suhail Malik’s long essay “The Ontology of Finance: Price, Power, and the Arkhéderivative” published in Collapse Volume VIII Edited by Robin Mackay.
Interweaving the works of Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler, Elena Esposito and Elie Ayache, Malik provides a tour de force critique of the critique of political economy to demand an engagement with the byzantine operation of finance. The essay is an examination of the array of derivative tools and their constitutive role in hedging and speculating futures. It explains how the organizing element of ‘Capitalization’ via price renders all conceptions of temporality as a revisable, adaptable, and ultimately contingent operation. Malik’s philosophical assertion is that the traditional notions of social order and norms have always been subject to perpetual restructuring. ‘Risk-Order’as the primary ingredient of ‘capital-power’ poses a tremendous challenge not only for Marxist and neoclassic political economy but also for Left-Accelerationaism and its underlying neorational philosophies
Can Capitalists Afford a Trumped Recovery
Get PDFFROM THE POST: "Earlier this week, I hooked up for a lunch with George Archer and Jonathan Nitzan, two friends of mine who also had previous stints working at BCA Research. I enjoyed our lunch and conversation. After we met, Jonathan sent me a paper he published along with Shimshon Bichler, ‘Can Capitalists Afford a Trumped Recovery? Let me begin by stating. . . .
Un Modelo CcP Del Mercado De Valores (A CasP Model of the Stock Market)
Get PDFSPANISH ABSTRACT: La mayoría de las explicaciones de las alzas y bajas del mercado de valores se basan en la comparación de la lógica “fundamental” subyacente de la economía con los factores exógenos que supuestamente la distorsionan. Este artículo presenta un modelo radicalmente distinto, y examina el mercado de valores desde la perspectiva del poder capitalizado y no desde el punto de vista de una economía distorsionada. El modelo demuestra que la valoración de acciones representa poder capitalizado, que el poder capitalizado está entrelazado al temor sistémico, y que estos dos elementos son mediados por el sabotaje estratégico. Este modelo triangular ofrece una base para examinar los límites del poder capitalizado y su relación con la transformación histórica y actual del modo de poder capitalista.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Most explanations of stock market booms and busts are based on contrasting the underlying ‘fundamental’ logic of the economy with the exogenous, non-economic factors that presumably distort it. Our paper offers a radically different model, examining the stock market not from the mechanical viewpoint of a distorted economy, but from the dialectical perspective of capitalized power. The model demonstrates that (1) the valuation of equities represents capitalized power; (2) capitalized power is dialectically intertwined with systemic fear; and (3) systemic fear and capitalized power are mediated through strategic sabotage. This triangular model, we posit, can offer a basis for examining the asymptotes, or limits, of capitalized power and the ways in which these asymptotes relate to the historical and ongoing transformation of the capitalist mode of power
From Colonialism to Climate Change: The Power to Externalize - Video
Get PDFThe history of capitalism is a history of externalization. While benefits were tallied, costs were routinely excluded from accounts. In this presentation I examine the history of externalization as a power process. A history of brutality and destruction marketed as innovation and efficiency, externalization has been the shadowy counterpart to accumulation. From colonialism to climate change, I will describe how negative effects of economic activity are systematically imposed on vulnerable communities via the interconnected processes of production and accounting. Finally, I will consider how externalities have made their way back onto the books through uprisings, court rulings and environmental disasters.
Refreshment will be served and everyone is welcome.
WHERE: Verney Room, South 674 Ross Building, Keele Campus, York University
WHEN: 2:30 - 5:30 pm, Tuesday, 24 October 201
Profit Warning: There Will Be Blood
Get PDFThe Weapondollar-Petrodollar Coalition might no longer be in the Middle East driver’s seat. However, with the oil and armament companies, the region’s oil-exporting autocracies and various non-state groups all keen on seeing their oil-related incomes rise from record lows, the prospects of a new energy conflict, whether premeditated or coincidental, seem extremely high
Uneven and Combined Confusion: On the Geopolitical Origins of Capitalism and the Rise of the West
Get PDFThis article offers a critique of Alexander Anievas and Kerem Nişancioğlu’s "How the West came to rule: the geopolitical origins of capitalism". We argue that while all historiography features a number of silences, shortcomings or omissions, the omissions in How the West came to rule lead to a mistaken view of the emergence of capitalism. There are two main issues to be confronted. First, we argue that Anievas and Nişancioğlu have an inadequate and misleading understanding of "capital" and "capitalism" that tilts them towards a theoretical stance that comes very close to arguing that everything caused capitalism while at the same time having no clear and convincing definition of "capital" or "capitalism". Second, there are at least three omissions—particular to England/Britain within a geopolitical context—that should be discussed in any attempt to explain the development of capitalism: the financial revolution and the Bank of England; the transition to coal energy; and the capitalization of state power as it relates to war, colonialism and slavery. We conclude by calling for a connected-histories approach within the framework of capital as power
Third Speaker Series on the Capitalist Mode of Power - Videos and Program
Get PDFExisting theories of capitalism, mainstream as well as heterodox, view capitalism as a mode of production and consumption. The purpose of this ongoing speaker series is to interrogate capitalism as a mode of power. The presentations offer a power theory of personal income distribution (Blair Fix, 2:30-5:30pm, October 17, 2017), explore the power to externalize (DT Cochrane, 2:30-5:30pm, October 24, 2017), and interrogate the link between the power of mass culture and corporate profit (James McMahon, 2:30-5:30pm, November 1, 2017).
The presentations are organized by the Forum on Capital as Power and sponsored by the York Department of Politics.
Refreshments will be served and all are welcome.
WHERE: Verney Room, 674 South Ross, Keele Campus of York University
WHEN: October 17; October 24, November 1, 201