Land Reform Under Lula
By Chris Tilly, Marie Kennedy,
and Tarso Luís Ramos | September 29th
As Brazil’s president finishes up his second term, land redistribution has stagnated, the government continues to bet on agribusiness as a development strategy, and powerful regional politicians are moving to criminalize the land seizure movement as “terrorist.” Read more »
The Physical and Economic Devastation of Gaza
By Jennifer Olmsted | July 7th
Israel’s three-week military attack against the Gaza Strip last December came at a time when the Palestinians—on the West Bank and all the more so in Gaza—already faced dire economic circumstances.
Read more »
Contours of Crisis III: Systemic Fear and Forward-Looking Finance
Third in a series of articles on the current crisis.
By Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan | June 11th
The rituals of finance condition investors to look forward and price assets based on expected future earnings. But what happens during a systemic crisis, when the future of capitalism itself is in doubt?
Read more »
All That Glitters Is Goldman Sachs
By Robert Zevin | May 20th
“When I told a friend who runs a program in community economic development the subtitle of my talk, ‘A Primer on Skullduggery in High Finance,’ he replied, ‘Isn’t that redundant?’” Read more »
Changing the Auto Industry from the Wheels Up
By Alejandro Reuss | May 13th
The problems of the U.S. auto industry call for radical solutions. Read more »
Contours of Crisis II: Fiction and Reality
Second in a series of articles on the current crisis.
By Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan | April 28th
Economists tell us that the current crisis is our punishment for letting the fiction of finance distort the real economy. But what exactly is this “real” economy and how does finance distort it? Do the economists have a clue?
Read more »
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Shovel-Ready in Canada
By Maurice Dufour | February 19th
Pundits are praising the financial health of the United States’s northern neighbor—but should they? Read more »
Picking Up the Crumbling Pieces
Sixth and Final Installment in a Series on the Subprime/Securitization Panic
By Larry Peterson | February 4th
A look at the medium- and longer-term significance of the crisis, and specifically at what must be dealt with comprehensively to avoid serious long-term economic weakness. Read more »
A New Vision for the Department of Labor
By Kim Bobo | January 28th
Billions of dollars in
wages are stolen from millions of workers every
year. Here’s how the Department of Labor could stop it.
Read more »
Contours of Crisis
By Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan | December 31st, 2008
First in a series of articles on the current crisis. The series aims to outline some of the important contours of the crisis, to situate these patterns in historical context, and to reflect on their possible causes and implications.
Read more »
Whose Interests Will Shape Obama’s “Change”?
By Ismael Hossein-zadeh | December 23rd, 2008
The market meltdown has made change an urgent universal demand, but the question is: what kind of change? Whose mandates or interests will guide the course of the urgently needed change? The answer depends on the outcome of the balance of power, or the outcome of the ongoing (though largely submerged) class struggle.
Read more »
Contagious Defections
By Mark Engler | December 18th
How far will mainstream economics go in breaking with the increasingly discredited Washington Consensus?
Read more »
The Impasse Ahead
By Korkut A. Erturk | December 12th, 2008
Government efforts to stimulate demand won’t be enough to stop the downward recessionary spiral. While the stock market searches for its own bottom, the fate of the economy depends on the health of the dollar.
Read more »
Ten Weeks That Shattered a World
Fifth in a Series on the Subprime/Securitization Panic
By Larry Peterson | November 7th, 2008
Make no mistake about it. The world has experienced in the last few weeks events comparable in historical significance to the fall of the Berlin Wall. As in the fall of the Wall, there was an exceptionally sudden collapse of an hegemonic system that had seemed, to the vast majority of observers, and only weeks before the event, to be at least somewhat secure in its continued existence, if irreversibly committed to an inevitable, fundamental process of reform. Read more »
Notes on the Foreclosure Crisis
By Tom Weisskopf | November 7th, 2008
The number of home foreclosures across the United States is now approaching 2 million, and economists expect that several million more borrowers may default within another year as job losses rise and housing prices continue to fall. This constitutes a crisis that must be addressed as soon as possible, for multiple reasons. Read more »
Commercial Paper
Financialization’s (Latest) Weak Link
By Max Fraad Wolff | October 29th, 2008
There may be no better illustration of the staggering pain emanating from financial market turbulence than the carnage experienced recently in commercial paper markets worldwide. Read more »
Notes on the Financial Crisis, #3
Third in a Series
By Tom Weisskopf | October 15th, 2008
The last 10 days have brought further news of economic disaster, highly volatile stock market movements (most of them sharply downward), and indisputable evidence that the crisis is world-wide in scope. It’s no longer just Hank Paulson and his associates trying to figure out what the U.S. Government should do to stem a collapse of the U.S. financial system. Read more »
Notes on the Financial Crisis, #2
Second in a Series
By Tom Weisskopf | October 5th, 2008
Barack Obama has shown stronger signs of readiness to pursue the measures needed to make the bailout effort succeed, and in a way that is fair to all concerned. In order to follow through, he needs to be prodded and supported by substantial Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. Read more »
Notes on the Financial Crisis, #1
First in a Series
By Tom Weisskopf | October 1st, 2008
The current financial crisis is broadly attributable to the system of (relatively) deregulated and globalized capitalism into which the U.S. economy is now thoroughly integrated. Read more »
Banking on Bankruptcy
Fourth in a Series on the Subprime/Securitization Panic
By Larry Peterson | August 11th, 2008
In order to understand how an unstable situation at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac tipped over into a rout that threatened the whole global financial system, we have to focus on a charming investment strategy that is becoming more and more popular every time a major financial firm finds itself under mortal attack. Read more »
Bear Stearns: Not Your Average Bailout
Third in a Series on the Subprime/Securitization Panic
By Larry Peterson | May 13th, 2008
The Fed-led rescue of Bear gave investors an unmistakable signal that the central bank would not allow what had long ceased to be perceived as a “mere” liquidity (involving availability of funds to carry out current business) crunch to finally, however belatedly, tip over into a full-blown solvency (involving conditions pertaining to whether or not business could be carried on or not at all) crisis. The unique thing about this shift was that any prior distinction between systemic solvency and the solvency of one particular institution was reduced to precious little. Read more »
Finding Spare Change for the Invisible Hand
Second in a Series on the Subprime/Securitization Panic
By Larry Peterson | March 3rd, 2008
Since our first piece on the subprime/securitization crisis came out, we’ve seen official proposals to confine the damage come and go, with price tags going up each time, while the contagion itself continues to infect regions of the financial world most people never even knew existed. Read more »
The Subprime/Securitization Market Panic
A Guide for the Perplexed
By Larry Peterson | December 14th, 2007
What does the swindling of financially benighted, sometimes greedy, and even gullible American homeowners have to do with collateral used by mysterious funds which promise outsized returns to the incredibly wealthy? And how on earth can developments in these markets cause a bank run (Northern Rock) in England, which hadn’t seen anything similar since the 1860s? Moreover, who are those even more shadowy characters lurking on the horizon—Sovereign Wealth Funds and private equity investors to name two—who stand to capitalize on the mess? Read more »
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