Economist of the day

  Radical economist Maria da Conceição Tavares (who, in the video above, addresses students of economics and describes the subject as political economy, as a social science for which history—not mathematics—is central) was just awarded the highest scientific prize granted by the Brazilian government [ht: cb and gh]. In a recent interview, Tavares explained that, [...]

Gramsci, New York, and the Mystery of Naples

  [ht: mg]

Cartoon of the day

Special mention

Richard Pryor, Karl Marx, and the critique of capitalism

Richard Wolff [ht: ja] explains, in an interview with the Guardian, how he has drawn inspiration for his critique of capitalism (from Marx) and for his speaking style (from Richard Pryor). Anthony Arnove, an editor at Haymarket books, which is bringing out Wolf’s [sic] next work, Democracy At Work: A Cure for Capitalism, explained what [...]

Ironic, or maybe not

It seems ironic that, if you Google Keynes’s General Theory, the first link is to the full text on the Marxists Internet Archive. That’s how I tracked down this quote (which appears in chapter 18): it is an outstanding characteristic of the economic system in which we live that, whilst it is subject to severe [...]

Whoops! They did it again

It’s a sign of the ongoing crises of capitalism that a wide variety of mainstream publications, from Business Week to the Harvard Business Review, have found it necessary to publish articles on Marx and the continuing relevance of Marxian economics. And so they look around and find someone—although rarely a Marxist economist or actual Marxist [...]

Rereading Rawls

  It’s been awhile since I read John Rawls’s theory of justice. But I’ve longed considered it compatible with one or another form of welfare-state capitalism, and therefore with capitalist exploitation as defined by Marx. But Daniel Little has proposed a different reading, based on a radical interpretation advanced by Will Wilkinson, according to which [...]

Minsky through a neoclassical lens

What happens when Hyman Minsky’s financial instability hypothesis is read through a neoclassical lens? Steve Keen explains: My good friend and long term fellow rebel in economics Professor Rod O’Donnell once remarked that neoclassical economists are incapable of reading Keynes: they look at his words and then spout Walras instead. A similar phenomenon applies here: [...]

Marx was right

Marx was right about many of the the problems of capitalism. But don’t take my word for it. Read the latest letter to investors [pdf] from Jeremy Grantham, cofounder of the Boston-based investment firm GMO.* First, Grantham outlines some of the recent problems with capitalism, especially in the United States. Then, he gets serious, arguing [...]

China and the West

Mainstream economists are worried that China’s catch-up growth model seems not to be following the path of the West. The claim, made by Daron Acemoglu and others, is that the development of capitalism in the West represented a “happy connection between prosperity and democracy.” China, however, appears to be following a different path, where “rulers [...]