Capitalism
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Capitalism
Jean-Jacques Rousseau proclaimed in his Social Contract that men, though born free, were everywhere in chains. Astonishingly, three centuries later, inequality continues to dog capitalism and taint democracy's legitimacy -- worse now even than back then.Bruce Judson: Restoring Capitalism: The Kids Camping on Wall Street Are the Capitalists
Today, some of the leading capitalists in the nation are located on Wall Street. Sadly, it is the protesters outside who are literally on the street who embody the ideal rewards and responsibilities of capitalism, not the financiers who occupy the buildings. This is the first in a s series of articles that explores the nature of a well-functioning capitalist system and how this system is now applied to the occupants of the buildings on Wall Street and those who are, quite literally, on The Street. Capitalism is not an abstract ideal.
Jeff Miron on Capitalism
I am a professor of economics at Harvard University, where I teach introductory economics (ec 10) among other courses. I use this blog to keep in touch with my current and former students. Teachers and students at other schools, as well as others interested in economic issues, are welcome to use this resource.
As Wall Street bandies about the odds of another recession, American workers have bigger worries than fluctuations in GDP: The economy just doesn't seem to be working for them anymore. With globalization and technological advances allowing US companies to grow while shedding labor and shifting it overseas, even times of recovery aren't providing new jobs or wage growth . Things are bad enough in sectors like manufacturing, which has lost a third of its domestic jobs in a decade. But, as Don Peck writes in next month's Atlantic magazine , we haven't even really started to feel the effects of technology-driven efficiency on middle-income white-collar fields like information technology: Computer software can now do boilerplate legal work, for instance, and make a first pass at reading X-rays and other medical scans. Likewise, thanks to technology, we can now easily have those scans read and interpreted by professionals half a world away.
Americatowns Abroad: One Bleak Vision Of American Workers' Future | The Daily Feed | Minyanville.com
Economist's View: Karl Smith: Capital vs. Labor
On Friday, I wrote about how equipment and software prices are getting rapidly cheaper while the cost of labor has been getting more expensive, making capital a more attractive investment to companies than people. Tax incentives that encourage earlier capital investment may be helping, too. Importantly this only makes sense if capital and labor are substitutes in production. Typically we think of them as complements. Lets take some obvious examples. Suppose to create welded metal I need both a welder and welding torch.
The Ideological Crisis of Western Capitalism | Truthout
Just a few years ago, a powerful ideology – the belief in free and unfettered markets – brought the world to the brink of ruin. Even in its hey-day, from the early 1980’s until 2007, American-style deregulated capitalism brought greater material well-being only to the very richest in the richest country of the world. Indeed, over the course of this ideology’s 30-year ascendance, most Americans saw their incomes decline or stagnate year after year. Moreover, output growth in the United States was not economically sustainable.Rule by Rentiers - NYTimes.com
Nor is the Federal Reserve riding to the rescue. On Tuesday, Ben Bernanke, the Fed chairman, acknowledged the grimness of the economic picture but indicated that he will do nothing about it. And debt relief for homeowners — which could have done a lot to promote overall economic recovery — has simply dropped off the agenda. The existing program for mortgage relief has been a bust, spending only a tiny fraction of the funds allocated, but there seems to be no interest in revamping and restarting the effort. The situation is similar in Europe, but arguably even worse.
By Paul Mattick Apart from the patently nonreality-based dissent of its Republican members, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission could hardly have expected the report it issued in January to arouse much excitement. After a year and a half of research and the testimony of academics and other economic experts, it came up with no more than the already conventional wisdom that the economic downturn that burst into public view in 2007 might have been avoided, having been caused by a combination of lax governmental regulation and excessive risk-taking by lenders and borrowers, particularly in the housing market. The same conventional wisdom assures us that swift government action prevented the Great Recession from turning into a full-blown depression, and that the downturn has given way to recovery, albeit a "fragile" one. No matter how often it is repeated, however, this wisdom remains unconvincing. Why is the recovery so fragile?
Capitalism's Dismal Future - The Chronicle Review - The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Ideological Crisis of Western Capitalism - Joseph E. Stiglitz - Project Syndicate
Exit from comment view mode. Click to hide this space NEW YORK – Just a few years ago, a powerful ideology – the belief in free and unfettered markets – brought the world to the brink of ruin.
Andrew Haldane and Richard Davies of the Bank of England have released a very useful new paper on short-termism in the investment arena. They contend that this problem real and getting worse. This may at first blush seem to be mere official confirmation of most people’s gut instinct.
On Short-Termism and the Institutionalization of Rentier Capitalism « naked capitalism
Has Managerial Capitalism Peaked? — HBS Working Knowledge
Summing Up The clear consensus of those responding to this month's column is that managerial capitalism, as John Bogle terms it, has peaked. But what will follow it is less clear. Many doubt that the form of owners' capitalism represented by private equity is the answer. C.What’s the difference between productive wealth and destructive wealth? What if Gross Domestic Product made a fundamental distinction between the two — between making money by producing real value for others, versus just making money by exploiting others? What if GDP quantified the growth of productive capitalism, and separated that from the type of “wealth” created through extraction, manipulation and exploitation? We find ourselves at a point in the world where the main tool to measure economic success and progress — Gross Domestic Product, or GDP – is outdated.
Capitalists Who Make vs. Capitalists Who Take | Dylan Ratigan
Global capitalism and 21st century fascism - Opinion - Al Jazeera English
The crisis of global capitalism is unprecedented, given its magnitude, its global reach, the extent of ecological degradation and social deterioration, and the scale of the means of violence. We truly face a crisis of humanity. The stakes have never been higher; our very survival is at risk. We have entered into a period of great upheavals and uncertainties, of momentous changes, fraught with dangers - if also opportunities.Excerpted from an interview conducted for Furtherfield , by Lawrence Bird on 17/12/2010 It’s a commonplace now that the peer-to-peer movement opens up new ways of creating relating to others. But you’ve explored the implications of P2P in depth, in particular its social and political dimensions. If I understand right, for you the phenomenon represents a new condition of capitalism, and I’m interested in how that new condition impacts on the development of culture – in art and also architecture and urban form. As a bit of a background, I’d like to look at what you’ve identified as the simultaneous “immanence” and “transcendence” of P2P: it’s interdependent with capital, but also opposed to it through the basic notion of the Commons.
P2P Foundation » Blog Archive » Michel Bauwens Interviewed by Furtherfield
“After the Pirate Party’s political entry in the 2006 Swedish elections, we set out on a five-step plan to make sure that the offline civil liberties would carry over into the online world, against the wishes of the old guard. Each of these five steps would traditionally be impossible, and we’re done with the first two and are approaching the fourth: 3. Getting entry in the Swedish Parliament, which would start turning things around immediately.