The Bichler and Nitzan Archives
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Oil, Weapons and Capitalism (Radio Interview with Jonathan Nitzan)
No full textConflict and instability in the Middle East -- which elements of the US capitalist class thrive on it? Is the US invasion of Iraq an effort to secure cheap, free-flowing oil? Political economist Jonathan Nitzan offers surprising answers, and in the process illuminates the power dynamics underlying current trends in capitalism
The End of Neoliberalism?
Get PDFThis article was commissioned by the French newspaper Le Monde. The newspaper was one of several sponsors of an International Conference on Global Regulation, held at the University of Sussex on May 29-31, 2003, where we presented a plenary paper. As part of its sponsorship, Le Monde agreed to publish two articles reflecting the spirit of the conference. The first of these articles, written by four of the conference organizers, was published prior to the conference. After the conference, the organizers asked the two of us to submit a second, short article highlighting the gist of our presentation. This article is enclosed below. The paper was sent by the organizers to Le Monde’s Editor in Chief, Serge Marti. Many phone calls followed. In each call, Mr. Marti promised to publish the paper promptly. He never did
New Perspective. Review of Nitzan and Bichler's "The Global Political Economy of Israel"
Get PDFFROM THE REVIEW:
"When it comes to Israel, it sometimes seems that so much has been written that new authors will be fated either to reshuffle existing prose or to examine past and present through ever more power microscopes. Then, once in a while, someone comes along with original ideas. This book is a persuasive and hard hitting consideration of Israel's development in a global political economy context. Those who feel poorly acquainted with economics should not be deterred from reading it: they will be rewarded not only by deeper insights into the processes shaping current events, but by moments of revelation"
It's All About Oil
No full textThe new wars in the Middle East are certainly about oil, but not in the way most people think
ריאיון עם שמשון ביכלר (Interview with Shimshon Bichler)
Get PDFמהריאיון: "בתוכנית אוסלו היו הרבה פנטזיות מגלומניות, מהסוג ששמעון פרס אוהב להפיץ. מאחר שאי אפשר היה סתם ככה, פשוט ולעניין, לסגת מכל השטחים, ובעיקר לפנות בבת-אחת את כל ההתנחלויות והתשתית הענקית שבוזבזה שם במשך עשרות שנים – היו מוכרחים להפוך את הדבר הפשוט הזה, כמו למשל (רעיון מטורף לחלוטין) לאפשר מעט עצמאות לפלסטינים במעט שטח שנותר להם, לעניין שולי. לא. הרי לא יתכן שעסקי 'הביטחון הלאומי' שכה שקדו לטפח, יתגלו כסתם בועה: היה צריך שמאחורי העניין הפשוט הזה תהיה תוכנית גדולה, 'חזון', שמאחוריו מסתתרת תוכנית עיקרית, מהממת ומתוחכמת, גלובלית ומה לא. מעט מאד בני-אדם טרחו לקרוא את מסמכי אוסלו ופאריס, והאמת היא שההסכמים הללו, אם אפשר לכנות בשם כזה תכתיבים בין כובש לנכבש, הוכנו באופן גרוע, בחשאי, על ידי בני אדם שכל חייהם הסתכמו באינטריגות עלובות. אבל אין לכך שום קשר לעניין העיקרי: הסכם בין ישראל והפלסטינים אינו זקוק ליותר מעמוד אחד מודפס, שבו הישראלים מכירים במדינה עצמאית פלסטינית לפחות בגבולות 4 ביוני 1967, ומתחייבים להסתלק מכל השטחים תוך 24 שעות. השאר, כמו כדאיות של שני צדדים ריבוניים ועצמאיים, להגיע לשיתוף פעולה מסחרי, או הסדרי סחר ותנועה, זה כבר עניין למשא-ומתן מאוחר, ובתנאי ששני הצדדים מעוניינים בכך.
Political Economy of Global Finance (YorkU, AS4295/GS5295 3.0, Undergraduate/Graduate)
No full textWhy should political science students be concerned with money, financial instruments and international capital movements? The standard interdisciplinary answer is that finance and politics “affect” one another. For instance, governments have to pay close attention to the stocks and bond markets, whereas investors depend on political and legal conditions; economic performance and class positions are influenced by, and in turn bear on interest rates and asset values; and international interdependence is further complicated by cross-boarder capital movements. The seminar deals with such connections but also goes beyond them, seeking to understand finance itself as a dominant form of politics.
Discussion is organized around several key themes, including: (1) Concepts and Building Blocks: What are financial markets, who are the key players and why are they there? (2) The Alchemy of Finance: How do financial markets work? What different theories and ideologies are used to explain, justify and criticize the functioning of modern finance? How is finance a form of “governance”? Who is being governed, by whom and to what end? (3) The Globalization of Finance: What is capital flow and how is it related to ownership and power? What is the connection between the power of capital, state sovereignty and international monetary stability? How have their relationships changed over time? (4) Political Economy of Global Finance: Is international finance a precondition for prosperity, or is it a “fictitious” bubble, de-linked from the underlying “real” political economy and hence a source of global instability? What types of international financial architectures are possible, and what do they imply for the political economy of power and well being, locally as well as globally
The Global Crisis of Financial Capitalism (המשבר הגלובלי של הקפיטליזם הפיננסי)
Get PDFA crash course on financial capitalism
Global Accumulation and the Future of the Global Political Economy: A Series of Articles (세계적 축적과 지구 정치 경제의 항뱡)
Get PDF이 연재는 9.11 특히 미국의 이라크 침략 이후 세계 정치 경제는 어디로 가는가라는 질문을 중심으로 닛잔과 비클러의 주장과 이론을 재구성 한 것이다. 기왕에 한국어로 번역된 [권력 자본론](Capital as Power)이 닛잔과 비클러의 이론을 설명한 것이었다고 한다면, 이 연재는 그 이론에 기반하여 차등화 축적이 이루어지는 현실의 사례들, 미국의 군수-석유 자본의 행태와 중동의 군사 위기, 초국적 인수 합병의 붐과 지구화의 관계 등등이 상세히 논의되고 있다. 원래 이론을 다루는 [권력 자본론]의 자매편으로 기획되었으며, 곧 책으로 묶여 출판될 계획이기도 하다. 비전문가도 쉽게 읽을 수 있도록 저널리즘의 에세이 형식으로 쓰여져 [권력 자본론]보다 쉽게 닛잔과 비클러의 이론에 접할 수 있는 입문서로도 쓸 수 있다
Mergers, Stagflation and the Logic of Globalization
Get PDFThe chapter offers a new approach for analysing capitalist development and crisis, tying together mergers and acquisitions, stagflation and globalization as integral facets of accumulation. The framework builds on the concept of differential accumulation, emphasizing the power drive by dominant capital groups to beat the average and exceed the normal rate of return. Four regimes of differential accumulation are articulated: internal breadth by amalgamation, external breadth through green-field investment, internal depth via cost-cutting, and external depth through stagflation. The complex relationships between these different regimes, as well as their broader societal implications, are analysed in light of the US experience over the past century. Several broad conclusions emerge. (1) Of the four regimes, the most important are amalgamation and stagflation, which tend to oscillate inversely to each other. (2) Over the longer haul, amalgamation grows exponentially relative to green-field investment, contributing to the stagnation tendency of modern capitalism. (3) The wave-like pattern of mergers and acquisitions reflects the progressive break-up of socioeconomic ‘envelopes’, as dominant capital moves through successive amalgamation at the industry, sectoral, national, and, finally, global level. In this sense, the current global merger wave is an integral facet of differential accumulation. (4) Periodic lulls in amalgamation tend to be compensated for by stagflation, which appears as a crisis at the societal level, but which contributes significantly to differential accumulation at the disaggregate level. An end to the present worldwide merger boom could therefore trigger global stagflation. (5) Stagflation crises have been previously 'resolved' when dominant capital broke its existing envelope, pushing to amalgamate within a broader universe of takeover targets. Given that there is nothing more to conquer beyond the global envelope, future stagflation crises may prove much more difficult to tame
Global Political Economy II: Issues and Problems Since 1945 (YorkU, AS/POLS 3275 3.0, Undergraduate)
No full textThe course examines the global political economy as it developed since the end of Second World War. The first half of the course deals with the general themes of power and production, order and disorder, global finance, international trade and the transnational corporation. Building on these themes, the second half of the course explores various facets of capitalist expansion and crisis, including North-South relationships, development and underdevelopment, the impact of financial flows, the transition from socialism, and the future of the global political economy