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Can Capitalists Afford a Trumped Recovery
No full textFROM 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. . . .
Power, Food and Agriculture: Implications for Farmers, Consumers and Communities
No full textOne of the most pressing concerns about the industrialization of agriculture and food is the consolidation and concentration of markets for agricultural inputs, agricultural commodities food processing and groceries. In essence a small minority of actors globally exercise great control over food system decisions. This means that because of increased consolidation of these markets globally – from the United States to China to Brazil, from South Africa to the United Kingdom – the vast majority of farmers, consumers and communities are left out of key decisions about how we farm and what we eat. Transnational agrifood firms are motivated by profits and power in the marketplace, leaving other social, economic and ecological goals behind. This creates an agroecological crisis in the face of climate uncertainty but one that is rooted in social and economic organization. In this chapter we detail the current economic organization of agriculture, and briefly describe its negative impacts on farmers, communities and ecology. We conclude by articulating stories of farmer-led resistance that imagine a new food system
Profit Warning: There Will Be Blood
No full textThe 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
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
Trump and the Bond Market: Why a Flight From U.S. Treasuries Is Unlikely
No full textFROM THE ARTICLE: Trump’s election made investors justifiably nervous. But a mass exodus from the U.S. Treasuries market is unlikely, both because the United States remains the most relatively safe investment option in a perilous world and because Trump’s policies will entrench the power of the superrich owners of Treasuries. The existence of an influential bloc of domestic owners should offer some solace to foreign investors rattled by the new administration’s nationalist rhetoric. But perhaps the main lesson for the holders of U.S. Treasuries is that the inertia in the global financial system is strong -- even in the face of a change like Trump
Evidence for a Power Theory of Personal Income Distribution
No full textThis 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
Political Economy of Capital Accumulation (YorkU, LAPS/POLS 4292 6.0, Undergraduate, Fall Term, 2017-18)
No full textCapital is the central power institution of capitalism: it is the main force underlying the relentless transformation of power relations in capitalist societies. The course explores the accumulation of capital from three interrelated perspectives: conceptual, historical and empirical. At the conceptual level, the course examines the evolution of different orthodox and critical theories of value and how these theories serve to explain and justify contending notions of accumulation. At the historical level, it traces the development of capital from its humble pre-capitalist origins to its present world dominance. At the empirical level, it studies and juxtaposes the qualitative and quantitative aspects of capital accumulation and study what they mean for the contemporary political economy. In parallel to these explorations, the course introduces students to the art and science of empirical research. By the end of the course, students are expected to be able to develop and integrate theoretical arguments with their own empirical work
Un Modelo CcP Del Mercado De Valores (A CasP Model of the Stock Market)
No full textSPANISH 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
Uneven and Combined Confusion: On the Geopolitical Origins of Capitalism and the Rise of the West
No full textThis 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
Kapitalizm: Sabotaj Yoluyla Büyüme – Üç Kağıt Serisi
Get PDF1. Kapitalizm: Sabotaj Yoluyla Büyüme – 1 (No. 42, December 2017, pp. 22-23)
Kapitalizmi geleneksel yöntemlerin dışında inceleyen akademisyenlerden oluşan CasP projesine, Meydan Gazetesi’nin bir önceki sayısında yer vermiştik. Anarşist Ekonomi Tartışmaları yazı dizimize, aynı proje kapsamında yayınlanan ve kapitalizmin büyüme yanılsamasını inceleyen bir makale ile devam ediyoruz. Makalenin kısaltarak alıntıladığımız ilk üç bölümü, kapitalizmin stratejik sabotajını ve büyüme şeklini açıklıyor. Bu yazı ayrıca, tarih öncesi ekonomik faaliyetleri bugün ile karşılaştırmaya olanak veren, sosyo-biyofiziksel bir ölçütü, enerji yakalamayı kullanması açısından ilgi çekici, çünkü bu karşılaştırmayı para ya da üretim miktarları kullanarak yapmak imkansızdır.
2. Kapitalizm: Sabotaj Yoluyla Büyüme – 2 (No. 43, February 2018, pp. 22-23)
Anarşist Ekonomi Tartışmaları yazı dizimize, önceki sayılarda ilk üç bölümünü aktardığımız ve kapitalizmin büyüme yanılsamasını inceleyen makale ile devam ediyoruz. Makalenin yine kısaltarak alıntıladığımız 4-8. bölümleri, genel olarak iktidar odaklı yapıların ve hiyerarşinin sosyoekonomik özelliklerini inceliyor. Bu bölümler, büyük ve ekonomik olarak gelişmiş toplumların zorunlu olarak hiyerarşik olacağı iddiası gibi, egemen devletçi düşünce akımlarının yarattığı mitleri parçalaması açısından önemli bir okuma olarak karşımıza çıkıyor.
3. Kapitalizm: Sabotaj Yoluyla Büyüme – 3 (No. 44, March 2018, pp. 20-21)
Anarşist Ekonomi Tartışmaları yazı dizimizde, Bichler ve Nitzan’ın kapitalizmin büyüme yanılsamasını inceleyen makalelerinin ilk 8 bölümünü aktarmıştık. Makalenin sonundaki 9-12. bölümlerinde enerji ve iktidar ilişkisini inceleyen alternatif bir model sunuluyor. Makalenin bu bölümü ayrıca, neoliberal ve Marxist ekonomi teorilerin indirgemeci yapısını göz önüne sermesi açısından ilgi çekici