Step by step, capitalism’s shotgun marriage with democracy since 1945 is breaking up. (p. 64)
▻https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii87/articles/wolfgang-streeck-how-will-capitalism-end
Step by step, capitalism’s shotgun marriage with democracy since 1945 is breaking up. (p. 64)
▻https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii87/articles/wolfgang-streeck-how-will-capitalism-end
The Bosses Are the Workers’ Enemies, Not China — #The_Spark 1170 ▻https://the-spark.net/np_1170101.html #editorial
The first week of February, a Chinese “spy” balloon floated over the United States. It was the lead story on every TV news program, in spite of the fact that the military said clearly, and early, that it posed no threat. After milking it for every drop of propaganda against China they could, they shot it down.
Whatever this balloon is or isn’t, undoubtedly, the Chinese government does spy on the United States—just as the U.S. spies on China. But to imagine that China is somehow threatening the U.S. is to turn reality on its head.
Look at a map. The U.S. has long had military bases or close military alliances with Japan, South Korea, Australia, and Taiwan. In the last few months, it signed new deals to increase its military presence in the Philippines. The U.S. is making closer military ties with India. The U.S. has a massive fleet of aircraft carriers with all their support ships stationed close to Chinese waters at all times.
The U.S. has China militarily encircled, and it has been drawing that circle tighter.
On the other hand, there is not one Chinese military base in Latin America, or Canada, or the Caribbean. Rather, the U.S. complains that China is trying to extend its control into the South China Sea. You don’t need a map to know that sea is right next to China, not the U.S.!
The rulers of China and the U.S. have many interests in common. For decades now, U.S. corporations have made huge amounts of money, investing in China to exploit Chinese workers. This investment profited the Chinese ruling class as well.
But the Chinese state came out of a nationalist revolution that gave it the means to act more independently of U.S. domination than most underdeveloped countries. And while the ruling classes of the U.S. and China share in the profits extracted from Chinese workers, they fight over how big a share each one gets.
So even as the two economies are deeply intertwined, their ruling classes have become rivals in many parts of the world. More recently, China has begun investing abroad to extract profits from other countries, just like U.S. companies have done for a century—though China does so on a much, much smaller scale.
This remains a deeply unequal rivalry. The U.S. has budgeted $858 billion dollars for its military in 2023, not counting military support for Ukraine or the cost of veterans’ benefits. In 2022, China spent about $230 billion on its military.
But in reality, the U.S. advantage is much bigger. For all its recent growth, China remains an underdeveloped country. One measure of this: with more than four times as many people, the Chinese #economy is still officially smaller than the U.S. economy.
The U.S. also has at its disposal the militaries of most of the rest of the world—after all, the U.S. largely built those militaries after World War II!The U.S. has 750 overseas bases. China has one.
On top of that, China has only recently ramped up its military spending, while the U.S. has been spending so much for so long that it has an enormous reserve of weapons, bases, and experience. This gives the U.S. a massive advantage not just in a war with China, but in the ability to maintain control over huge parts of the globe.
Nonetheless, in some places, including Indonesia and many countries in Africa, China is able to give another option to governments looking for outside investment, presenting itself as an alternative to the U.S. or Europe. The U.S. ruling class thus has an interest in checking the growth of China’s power, so it can continue to wring profits out of every corner of the globe.
The latest spy balloon incident may be a bit of a joke. But it’s part of a campaign to convince workers in this country that “the Chinese” are our enemies, to convince us to accept to live even worse in order to “contain” China—or maybe even fight an open war.
The working class has no interest in any of this.
That $858 billion spent on the U.S. military is taken from our pockets, and away from the services we need. It is more than double the federal government’s combined budgets for the departments of Agriculture, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Transportation!
And if a war with China does come, it won’t be the wealthy who fight it—it will be workers. We’ve seen the costs of war in this country, borne by workers in body and mind. By one count, more than 125,000 veterans have died by suicide since just since 2001. And a shooting war with China would be incomparably destructive, posing the threat of nuclear annihilation for humanity.
But beyond that: we are the same class as the workers in China. Many of the goods workers make in this country are partially worked up in China. Every factory, warehouse, hospital, and school in this country uses equipment and products made by workers in China—and they use equipment produced here.
And we have the same enemies as the workers in China—the bosses who exploit us all. Does Ford care more about its workers here than those it exploits in China? No—it cares about just one thing, profit. Walmart pays as low as it can to its Chinese contractors—and also, as low as it can to its U.S. workers.
#Workers in the U.S. have no interest in the buildup toward war, whether against #China, or #Russia, or whatever country the U.S. will threaten next. Our enemies are right here: the ones who drive down our wages every day, take the money needed for our children, for the services we need—and pull us into one war after another so they can continue to dominate the world.
The difference between freelancers and entrepreneurs (▻https://thefr...
▻https://diasp.eu/p/12456286
The difference between freelancers and entrepreneurs | #freelancers #entrepreneurs #difference #autonomy #power #influence #scale #craftmanship #economy
The Commodification of Self | The Commodification of Everything (ht...
▻https://diasp.eu/p/12456285
The Commodification of Self | The Commodification of Everything | #commodification #self #bestof #psychology #identity #impulse #individualism #responsability #freedom #narcissism #consumerism #expression #sociology #marketing #fiction #images #personalbranding #selfbranding #economy #market #relationship #reductionism #utilitarianism
Full article: Democratic regression in comparative perspective: sco...
▻https://diasp.eu/p/11695932
Full article: Democratic regression in comparative perspective: scope, methods, and causes | #civilsociety #decline #democracy #democratic #economy #fear #institutions #media #politics #populism #regression
Pandemic profits for companies soar by billions more as poorest pay...
▻https://diasp.eu/p/11633860
Pandemic profits for companies soar by billions more as poorest pay price | #companies #covid19 #economy #inequality #oxfam #pandemic #profits
Thousands of Small Businesses Going Bankrupt in US Are Uncounted in...
▻https://diasp.eu/p/11480361
Thousands of Small Businesses Going Bankrupt in US Are Uncounted in Covid | #bankrupt #covid19 #economy #inequality #lockdown #SMB
“[Denmark] government also said that companies which pay out dividends, buy back own shares or are registered in tax havens won’t be eligible for any of the aid programs”
►https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-18/denmark-extends-business-aid-to-increase-spending-by-15-billion
#coronavirus #covid-19 #economy #économie #paradis-fiscaux #tax-havens #aid-program #aide-financière
Coronavirus has shattered the myth that the economy must come first
Since the 1990s, faith in ‘the market’ has gone unchallenged. Now even public shopping has become a crime against society.
The coronavirus shutdown of 2020 is perhaps the most remarkable interruption to ordinary life in modern history. It has been spoken about as a war. And one is reminded of the stories told of the interruption of normality in 1914 and 1939. But unlike a war, the present moment involves demobilisation not mobilisation. While the hospitals are on full alert, the majority of us are confined to quarters. We are deliberately inducing one of the most severe recessions ever seen. In so doing we are driving another nail into the coffin of one of the great platitudes of the late 20th century: it’s the economy stupid.
Coronavirus shows the folly of stripping state and society to the bone
Neal Lawson
Read more
Once upon a time we thought we knew what was up and what was down. According to the lingua franca of the 1990s, in the wake of the cold war, it was obvious that the economics were the fundamentals, and the rest followed. It was the west’s economic success that felled communism. And the economy ruled not only over creaky communist dictatorships, it defined the scope of possible politics in democracies. Arguing against globalisation, Tony Blair insisted, was as absurd as arguing against the seasons.
Then came 2008 and we were left wondering who the economic masters of the universe actually were. It was followed by the extraordinary, politically induced catastrophe of the eurozone debt crisis, in which conservative fiscal populism and dogma – disguised as expertise – ruled over the need to ensure employment and grow the pie. Then in 2016 the UK referendum delivered a majority for Brexit in the face of predictions of economic disaster. Months later, Donald Trump, a narcissistic billionaire, was swept to power by working-class votes in the face of opposition by the great and the good. Both the UK and the US have since pursued policies of spectacular economic irrationality without fear of a crushing veto by the markets. Liberal elites waited in vain for the market vigilantes to arrive.
And now Covid-19. Imagine if blunt economic interest was, in fact, dictating our response. Would we be shutting the economy down? What we know about the virus tells us that it most often kills what are by the numbers the “least productive” members of society. The majority of the working population experience symptoms barely more significant than a regular flu. Unlike regular flus it does not threaten children, the future workers. The virus may be bad, but simplistic economic logic would dictate that until we have a vaccine it would be best to keep life going, because, you know, “it’s the economy stupid”.
Coronavirus: the week explained - sign up for our email newsletter
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That was indeed the first reaction of the British government. The headline was that Britain was staying open for business. Journalists with good memories dug up Boris Johnson’s fondness for the mayor in Steven Spielberg’s Jaws who insists that despite the fact that a sea monster is eating his constituents the beach should stay open. The higher wisdom of public health, we were told, was that the productive workforce would acquire immunity. We know how that bold experiment in heroic economism has ended: a panic-driven withdrawal in the face of the disastrous scenario of hundreds of thousands of excess deaths, overwhelmed NHS hospitals and a crisis of political legitimacy.
It suddenly became obvious that when matters of life and death are concerned the calculus is different. Of course, old and sick people die. We all will in due course. But it matters fundamentally how and under what circumstances. A huge surge in mortality, even if it is limited to “vulnerable” populations with pre-existing conditions, is existentially unsettling. So too are the apocalyptic scenes that will unfold in our hospitals. In an earlier age, they might have remained behind a decent veil of obscurity. (No doubt the NHS and the BBC will work out the protocols for “embedded” reporting from the clinical frontlines.) But the words and images that have already come to us from northern Italy and Wuhan are bad enough. Faced with all of this, the stupidity lies in not recognising promptly that we must act, that we must shut down, that even the most essential individual activity of the market age, public shopping, has mutated into a crime against society.
This is not to say that economics is not shaping the crisis. It is the relentless expansion of the Chinese economy and the resulting mix of modern urban life with traditional food customs that creates the viral incubators. It is globalised transportation systems that speed up transmission. It is calculations of cost that define the number of intensive-care beds and the stockpiles of ventilators. It is the commercial logic of drug development that defines the range of vaccines we have ready and waiting; obscure coronaviruses don’t get the same attention as erectile dysfunction. And once the virus began to spread, it was the UK’s attachment to business as usual that induced fatal delay. Shutting down comes at a price. No one wants to do it. But then it turns out, in the face of the terrifying predictions of sickness and death, there really is no alternative.
It is once you have overcome that political, intellectual and existential hurdle – to realise that this is a matter of life and death – that economics enters back in. And it does so with a vengeance. The logic revealed by the well-organised Asian states is that it is best to conduct a severe quarantine regime in the hope of being able to return to normal activity as soon as possible. The Chinese economy is already resuming step by step.
In the west, the scale and breadth of the epidemic is such that our response now will have to be a blanket shutdown. And that begs gigantic questions of economic management. Even conservative governments on both sides of the Atlantic are pulling every lever of monetary and fiscal policy. In a matter of weeks they have embarked on gigantic interventions on a scale comparable to those in 2008. They may be able to soften the blow. But it is an open question how long we will be able to persist, how long we will be able to freeze the economy to save lives.
In making the difficult choices that lie ahead we have at least gained one degree of freedom. The big idea of the 1990s that “the economy” will serve as a regulating superego of our politics is a busted flush. Given the experience of the past dozen years we should now never tire of asking: which economic constraints are real and which imagined?
▻https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/20/coronavirus-myth-economy-uk-business-life-death
#économie #economy_first #priorité #santé #coronavirus #covid-19
Turkey finally releases epidemic figures: coronavirus epicenter in Istanbul-Al monitor
“Another 79 people died in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 356 people, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said. Another 2,456 people tested positive and the country now has 18,135 confirmed cases, he said.”
#Covid-19#Turquie#Pandemic#Economy#migrant
▻https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/04/turkey-historic-catastrophe-erdogan-coronavirus.html
World economy is sleepwalking into a new financial crisis, warns Mervyn King | Business | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/oct/20/world-sleepwalking-to-another-financial-crisis-says-mervyn-king
▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/5c4905976b350c556874a1d63ee85475779083bd/0_188_3500_2099/master/3500.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-ali
As the climate crisis escalates…
… the Guardian will not stay quiet. This is our pledge: we will continue to give global heating, wildlife extinction and pollution the urgent attention and prominence they demand. The Guardian recognises the climate emergency as the defining issue of our times.
Our independence means we are free to investigate and challenge inaction by those in power. We will inform our readers about threats to the environment based on scientific facts, not driven by commercial or political interests. And we have made several important changes to our style guide to ensure the language we use accurately reflects the environmental catastrophe.
The Guardian believes that the problems we face on the climate crisis are systemic and that fundamental societal change is needed. We will keep reporting on the efforts of individuals and communities around the world who are fearlessly taking a stand for future generations and the preservation of human life on earth. We want their stories to inspire hope. We will also report back on our own progress as an organisation, as we take important steps to address our impact on the environment.
More people in France, like you, are reading and supporting the Guardian’s journalism – made possible by our choice to keep it open to all. We do not have a paywall because we believe everyone deserves access to factual information, regardless of where they live or what they can afford.
We hope you will consider supporting the Guardian’s open, independent reporting today. Every contribution from our readers, however big or small, is so valuable. Support The Guardian from as little as €1 – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.
Financial vulnerability and the reproduction of disadvantage in eco...
▻https://diasp.eu/p/9209637
Financial vulnerability and the reproduction of disadvantage in economic exchanges. | #economy #exchanges #inequality #reproduction #vulnerability #wealth
STOs & CoinBX: The Coming Revolution Worth Hundreds of Trillions of Dollars
▻https://hackernoon.com/stos-coinbx-the-coming-revolution-worth-hundreds-of-trillions-of-dollars
Find out more at aXpire.ioEquities and securities traded on public markets have existed for centuries. The first financial markets appeared in Northern Italy during the Middle Ages with credits and trade rights traded between merchants.Later, during the Age of Discoveries, these kinds of activities thrived in the Netherlands as well, most prominently used in order to fund commercial expeditions in Africa and Asia; the ‘IPO’ of the Dutch East India Company is perhaps the best example of the importance the stock market had on the community which it served.Nowadays, financial markets are an important backbone of the international #economy. As of February 2017, the total capitalization of stocks traded around the world was 69 trillion USD, roughly 100% of the world’s GDP. The total amount of (...)
Show #377: #factory / Teapoint / Factory
▻http://www.radiopanik.org/emissions/l-etranger/show-377-factory-teapoint-factory
Playlist up after the broadcast.
#noise #canteen #economy #toys #noise,canteen,economy,factory,toys
▻http://www.radiopanik.org/media/sounds/l-etranger/show-377-factory-teapoint-factory_06330__1.mp3
How to Survive the Next Financial Crisis: Student Loan Debt
▻https://hackernoon.com/how-to-survive-the-next-financial-crisis-student-loan-debt-566e1ab2eec4?
In the decade between 2006 and 2016, the overall cost of college rose 63%, increasing student loan debt by four times and and pushing the collective American student loan debt over the trillion threshold. For many #students, the price of college is more than just financial; it even possibly comes at the price of adulthood.Hearkening back to the Great Depression and Great Recession, the student loan crisis isn’t looking good these days. At $1.4 trillion, the American student loan debt is worth more than the combined value of Facebook and Microsoft, each valued at $541.5 billion and $750.6 billion respectively. For recent college grads saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in student loans, getting a start into adulthood is harder than ever, preventing them from buying homes, making a (...)
#student-loans #school-loan-debt #economy #student-loan-debt
What gives cryptocurrencies value?
▻https://hackernoon.com/what-gives-cryptocurrencies-value-d5e8aee1466d?source=rss----3a8144eabfe
Just over a year ago, after #bitcoin had just retraced from it’s all time high, I naïvely bought my first Bitcoin and fell down the rabbit hole. One thing I’ve learned is that cryptocurrencies are not just a technological innovation but potentially have a major economic and political impact on society as well. In this article I’ll discuss some of the lessons on the economics behind cryptocurrencies that I’ve learned over the past year to give other newcomers to the space a better feel for what got people excited in the first place.What is money?The ‘coin’ in Bitcoin and ‘currency’ in #cryptocurrency clearly suggest their intended use case; they’re meant to be a form of money. The first thing that comes to mind is likely the native currency you use to buy groceries. But where do they come from? Who (...)
Trust as a Commodity: Can a #trustless #economy Survive and Thrive?
▻https://hackernoon.com/trust-as-a-commodity-can-a-trustless-economy-survive-and-thrive-d74b80a4
image source: pixabay.comCrypto technologies are often referred to as “trustless.” While often cited as one of their defining features, the label can actually be quite confusing. How can something that’s “trustless” be used for activities that typically require trust?Blockchain is already starting to change the way we transact and do business by opening up the exciting new possibility of a trustless economy where #blockchain apps and services are widely used to facilitate transactions.For crypto to have a real chance of being accepted in the mainstream, it’s important for users to understand the technology’s nuances, starting with the idea of trust.Making Sense of TrustThe way the word “trust” is used in blockchain is similar to the way it’s used in the world of finance. Financially, to trust (...)
We’re Measuring the Economy All Wrong - The New York Times (https:/...
▻https://diasp.eu/p/7719307
We’re Measuring the Economy All Wrong - The New York Times | #inequality #finance #unemployment #economy #statistics #crisis #reductionism
Many young adults lack financial literacy, economic stability, stud...
▻https://diasp.eu/p/7655267
Many young adults lack financial literacy, economic stability, study finds | #economy #generationgap #adults #young #education #finance #inequality
America’s economic #growth has come from #subprime borrowing by the poorest 60% / Boing Boing
▻https://boingboing.net/2018/07/24/subprime-2-point-0.html
But it turns out that nearly all of the economic growth in today’s #economy has been driven by subprime borrowing by the poorest 60% of Americans, who have zeroed out their savings and then gone into heavy debt to get university degrees, start “businesses” (often by leasing a car to drive for a rideshare company or trying in some desperate way to get a toehold on the ladder), and maxing out credit cards.
It’s like a rerun of the 2008 crisis in more ways that one. The loans that enabled this debt-fueled growth have low teaser rates that are starting to expire, with new, much higher interest rates about to kick in. When that happens, expect waves of defaults.
“Enhance Your Penis”
▻https://hackernoon.com/enhance-your-penis-9d89b4a201a0?source=rss----3a8144eabfe3---4
“Enhance Your Penis!”Companies are collecting data about people. We shouldn’t let them do that. The data that is collected will be abused. That’s not an absolute certainty, but it’s a practical, extreme likelihood, which is enough to make collection a problem.— Richard StallmanI agree that collecting data on people can have unintended bad consequences. However, banning the practice of data collection would effectively ban targeted #advertising. This would have unintended consequences as well.Twenty-two years ago, there weren’t large #internet companies tracking your every move and serving targeted advertising. But that does not mean that life was perfect for Internet users. Those were also the days when we were deluged with emails with the subject line Enhance Your Penis!. The emails were sent (...)
The Price of Free is Actually Too High (▻https://www.feld.com/archiv...
▻https://diasp.eu/p/7023568
The Price of Free is Actually Too High | #price #web #economy #advertising #free
#South_Africa needs a new public debate
▻http://africasacountry.com/2017/04/south-africa-needs-a-new-public-debate
Economic and political crises typically encourage new avenues for conceptualizing a reordering of society. This is because they open up spaces in the realm of discourse due to the discrediting of traditional narratives and systems of thought. If that is generally the case, it is interesting to note that one could hear a pin drop…
Well - I guess that “heads or tails” is one form of monetary policy...
"President Donald #Trump was confused about the #dollar : Was it a strong one that’s good for the #economy ? Or a weak one ? So he made a call ― except not to any of the business leaders Trump brought into his administration or even to an old friend from his days in real estate. Instead, he called his national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Mike #Flynn"
▻http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/02/trump-asked-national-security-adviser-for-econ-tips-report.html #dollar #monnaie #économie